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HISTORY 



OF THE 



(gprmatt #oriPl|| of iMarylattb 




JOHN STRICKER 



HISTORY 



OF THE 



(Herman ^ort^tg of iHarglanb 



COMPILED BY 

LOUIS P. HENNIGHAUSEN 



READ AT THE MEETINGS OF 

THE SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF 
THE GERMANS IN MARYLAND 

1909 



For Sale by 

W. E. C. Harrison CB, Sons, Booksellers and Stationers 

2i4 E. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, Md. 

1909 






Copyright, 1909, by 
Louis P. Hennighausen 



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HISTORY 

OF THE 



The history of "The German Society of Maryland'' 
will be more interesting and better understood by some 
knowledge of the formation and histories of similar soci- 
eties in other Atlantic ports of North America during the 
eighteenth century, who still continue their noble work 
of charity at the present time. They came into existence 
during the years of 1764 to 1784 in the cities of Phila- 
delphia, Pa. ; Charleston, South Carolina ; Baltimore, 
Maryland, and New York, with the object to assist Ger- 
man immigrants in distress and to mitigate and finally to 
abolish a pernicious system of contract labor of free white 
persons, which in reality became a system of slavery 
limited in years. We find that most of the laws govern- 
ing the conduct of negro slaves, were in the course of time 
made applicable to the white contract immigrant laborers 
usually called "Redemptioners." 

There is an erroneous impression that these redemp- 
tioners were all Germans, when, in fact, persons of all 
nationalities were kept under that bondage. For many 
years English, Irish and Scotch had preceded them, and 
the earliest Gemian immigrants to our country were free 
settlers who paid for their passage and for their home- 
steads. 



6 History of The 

It is to the everlasting credit to these early German 
immigrants and their descendants that they were the first 
and, as far as known to the author, the only men who 
combined to mitigate and at last to free their poor fellow 
immigrants from the thraldom of this bondage. 

Their Patriotism x\s Americans. 

Nor did these early settlers who formed these societies 
confine themselves to mere humanitarian work, building 
churches, schools, orphanages, etc., they were also pa- 
triotic, public-spirited citizens. When the colonies rose 
to throw off the English yoke in the years 1776 to 1782, 
they took an active part in the war for the independence 
of our country. Every one of these large German soci- 
eties elected men as their officers, who rendered or had 
rendered voluntary Iniilitary service in the American army 
during the Revolutionary War. 

General F. W. Von Steuben. Col. H. E. Lutterloh, 
Lieut. Col. F. H. von Weisenfels, of New York; General 
Peter Muhlenberg, Fr. A. Miihlenberg, the first speaker 
of the House of Congress ; Col. Ludwig Farmer, of Penn- 
sylvania; Major Michael Kalteisen, Commander of Fort 
Johnson, Charleston, South Carolina ; Major Karl Fried- 
rich Wiesenthal, M. D., of Baltimore, Maryland, uerc 
all distinguished officers of the War of Independence, and 
served as presidents of the several German societies in 
their respective states. 

An interesting full history of the German Society of 
Pennsylvania was published by the historian. Dr. Oswald 
Seidenstricker, Philadelphia, 1876; the history of the New 



German Society of Maryland 7 

York Society by Anton Eickhoff, in his "Der Neuen 
Heimath," E. Steiger and Company, New York, 1884. 
The history of the German Society of Charleston, South 
CaroHna, has to my knowledge never been published or 
written. I have therefore given it more space in this 
work and made use of information furnished by its officer 
from the records ; and of the historical sketches by Gen- 
eral J. A. Wagner, published in Deutsche Pioneer, Cincin- 
nati, 1 87 1, p. 2 and 36; The Germans in Colonial Times 
by Lucy Forney Bittinger, J. P. Lippencott Co., Philadel- 
phia, 1901; Koerner's Deutsche Element, 1880, A. E. 
Wilde and Company, Cincinnati. The history of the 
German Society of Maryland is taken from the original 
records of the society, the earliest records up to the year 
1 81 7 being lost, and of later records partly destroyed by 
the great fire of 1904, also from contemporaneous publi- 
cations, newspaper and manuscripts, many legislative 
acts, law reports, personal conversation with old persons 
who had been redemptioners, letters, etc., etc., relating to 
the redemptioners. 

A redemptioner was a person from Europe, desirous, 
and often induced and persuaded to emigrate to the Eng- 
lish colonies of North America, to better his condition, 
and had not the means to pay for his passage. 

The owners and captains of an emigrant vessel to these 
colonies were willing to take such persons across, if the 
persons, and if mnors, the parents or guardians for them, 
would sign a contract : that on their arrival they would 
pay for the passage, by the captain hiring them as ser- 
vants for a term of years to masters willing to pay the 
wages in advance to the amount of the passage money. 



8 History of The 

In law this was known as an apprenticeship, or service 
entered into by a free person, voluntary, by contract for a 
term of years, on wages advanced before the service was 
entered, and a violation of the contract by the servant was 
punished by corporal punishment and imprisonment. 
The servants, by performing the service, were redeeming 
themselves and therefore called "Redemptioners." Vari- 
ous laws were passed from time to time in the several 
colonies, intended for their protection and defining their 
status with their masters. By an act of the assembly of 
Maryland, passed in 1638, the term of service of a re- 
demptioner was limited to four years, but by the act 
passed in the year 171 5, all servants above the age of 
twenty-five years were to serve five years ; those between 
the ages of eighteen and twenty-five years to serve six 
years; those between the age of fifteen to eighteen years 
to serve seven years and all below fifteen years up to then- 
twenty-second year, 

A so-called custom of the country grew up to give to 
the servant at the expiration of his service a reward, 
which was in 1637 (Md. Archives, case of Henry 
Spinks) judicially ascertained to be: One cap or hat, 
one new cloth or frieze suit, one shirt, one pair of shoe^ 
and stockings, one ax, one broad and one narrow hoe, 
fifty acres of land and three l>arrels of corn, which Henrys 
Spinks was adjudged to be entitled to out of the estate of 
his deceased master, Nicholas Harvey. 

Redetruptioners came or were sent to Virginia and later 
to Maryland from their first settlements. The first 
settlers had taken possession of and were granted large 
tracts of rich, virgin soil, but there were no laborers to 



German Society of Maryland 9 

cultivate it. England, to foster the value of her new 
colonies, transported her prisoners of war, taken in the 
insurrections of the Scots and Irish, to America to be sold 
a.s redemptioners ; the city of London, at one time, sent a 
hundred homeless children from its streets. In 1672, the 
average price in the colonies for a full term of a redemp- 
tioner was about ten pounds, while an African negro slave 
for life was worth twenty or twenty-five pounds.* So 
it appears the master obtained the services of a white 
person for five years at less than ten dollars a year wages, 
and the captain of the ship, who transported the redemp- 
tioner, received nearly fifty dollars' passage money, a 
most profitable venture on part of the captain and master, 
but as hereafter will be read, a most wretched, unprofit- 
able venture on part of the redemptioner. 

In most cases, according to the temper and character of 
the master and intelligence and obedience of the servant, 
these servants were well treated, but it was mere good 
luck if they came into the hands of kind, human masters- 
Many of these servants, after serving their time, became 
prosperous and even wealthy citizens. It was no dis- 
grace to be or to have been a servant, and intermarriage, 
between masters and servants were not of rare occurrence. 
There are instances on record where school teachers, and 
even ministers of the gospel, were in this manner bought 
by congregations to render their services in their re- 
spective offices. 

The Reverend Samuel Schwerdfeger, a native of Neu- 
stadt in Bavaria, a graduate of the University of Er- 
langen in the studies of theology and law, when twenty- 

*Bancroft's History, Vol. i, p. 125 



lo History of The 

four years of age, and very poor, fell into the hands oi 
emigrant runners, who shipped him as a redemptioner to 
Baltimore. He arrived here in the spring of the yeac 
1753, and was offered as "a studiosus theologian" for sale 
for a term of years to pay for his passage. The Lutheran 
Congregation of York, Pennsylvania, being at the time 
at loggerheads with their good old Pastor, Rev, Schaum, 
heard of this bargain and concluded to buy Rev. Schwerd- 
feger as their pastor. He remained at York until 1758 
joined the Lutheran Synod of Pennsylvania, and w-as sent 
by the synod as pastor to Frederick, Maryland. A 
learned apothecary was sold in Baltimore as a redemp- 
tioner. 

\\'hilst this is the bright side of the redemptioners' life, 
it had also a very dark side. The redemptioners on then- 
arrival here were not allowed to choose their masters nor 
kind of service most suitable to them. They were often 
separated from their famliy; the wife from the husband, 
and children from their parents, were disposed of for 
the term of years, often at public sale to masters living far 
apart, and alw^ays to the greatest advantage of the ship- 
per. There are many reports of the barbarous treatment 
they received, how they were literally worked to death, 
receiving insufficient food, scanty clothing and iK)or lodg- 
ing. Cruel punishments were inflicted on them for sliglu 
offences when they were at the mercy of a hard and brutal 
master. Their fellow black slave was often treated bet- 
ter, for he was a slave for life, and it was in the interest 
of the master to treat hihi wxll to preserve him, whilsi 
the poor redemptioner was a slave for a number of years 



German Society of Maryland ii 

only, and all his vital force was worked out of him during 
the years of his service. 

As with many masters these servants were treated alike, 
and had to live in common with and among their negro 
slaves, it happened that some of tlie white female re- 
demptioners cohabited and intermarried with the negro 
slaves and gave birth to mulatto children. This became 
a great offence to the better portion of the society of the 
colony, and to remedy this evil the general assembly of 
Maryland in 1663, chapter 30, passed a most curious, but 
also one of the most abominable laws which ever dis- 
graced the legislative code of even a slave state. It reads 
as follows : 

An Act Concerning Negro and Other Slaves. 

Section i. Be it enacted by the right honorable the Lord 
Proprietary, by the advice and consent of the Upper and 
Lower Houses of this present assembly, that all negro or 
other slaves within the Province, and all negro and other 
slaves to be hereafteer imported into the Province, shall 
serve durante vita, and all children born of any negro or 
other slave, shall be slaves as their fathers were for the 
term of their lives. 

Sec. 2. And for as much as divers free born English 
women forgetful of their free condition and to the disgrace 
of our nation, do intermarry with negro slaves, by which 
also divers suits may arise touching the issue of such 
women, and a great damage both befall the master of such 
negroes, for prevention whereof, for deterring such free 
born women from such shameful matches, be it further 
enacted by the authority, advice and consent aforesaid, that 
whatsoever free born woman shall intcrmarrv with anv 



12 History of The 

slave, from and after the last clay of this present assembly, 
shall serve the master of such slave during the life of her 
husband, and that all the issue of such free born woman so 
married shall be slaves as their fathers were. 

This law was in violation of the ancient maxim that the 
children of a free woman, the father being a slave, follow 
the status of their mother and are free. In Marylan<i 
therefore, the only State I believe that ever enacted sucn 
a law, the child was a slave when either father or niothi;r 
w^as a slave. So the presumption was always in favor of 
slavery. We must assume that this law was honesti_) 
intended to prevent future marriages between wdiite 
women and negro slaves, but these honest legislators 
little knew and understood the cupidity and depravity of 
human nature. For, instead of having this effect, many 
of the owners of white female redemptioners purposely 
intemiarried them w'ith their negro slave men, and thereby 
legally secured the wdiite female redemptioners as slave??, 
and also their children. This seems to have been don--: 
extensively. In 1681, how^ever, a case occurred which 
led to the speedy repeal of this law. In the spring of that 
year Lord Baltimore came on a visit to his Province of 
Maryland. Among his servants he brought with him an 
Irish maid servant, named "Nellie." She was a redemp- 
tioner. Lord Baltimore soon returned to England, and 
Nellie was sold for the unexpired term of her service to 
a resident of the colony. Within two months thereafter 
the new master of Nellie married her to his negro slave 
Butler, and thereby made her his slave, and her childrcii 
also became his slaves under the operation of the law. 
Lord Baltimore, hearing of this, became very indignant. 



German Society of Maryland 13 

and i'mUnediatel}' secured the repeal of this horrible law 
and the enactment of a new law, which effectually did 
prevent future marriages of white female redemptioners 
with negro slaves. The preamble of the new law is 
especially instructive to show us the condition of these 
poor female redemptioners. It reads : 

"And for as much as divers free born English or white 
women sometimes by the instigation, procurement or con- 
nivance of their masters, mistresses or dames, and always 
to the satisfaction of their lascivious and lustful desires, and 
to the disgrace not only of the English but also of many 
other Christian notions, do intermarry with negroes and 
slaves, by which means divers inconveniences, controver- 
sies and suits may arise, touching the issue or children of 
such free born women aforesaid, for the prevention whereof 
for the future, be it further enacted, &c.. That if any mas- 
ter, mistress or dame, having any free born English or white 
woman servant as said in their possession or property, shall 
by any instigation, procurement, knowledge, permission or 
contrivance whatsoever, suffer any such free born English 
or white woman servant in their possession, and wherein 
they have property as aforesaid, to intermarry or contract 
in matrimony with any slave from and after the last day 
of this present assembly, that then their said master, mis- 
tress or dame, of any such free born woman as aforesaid, 
shall forfeit and lose all their claim and title to the service 
and servitude of any such free born woman ; and also the 
said woman servant so married, shall be, and is by this 
present act, absolutely discharged, manumitted and made 
free, instantly upon her intermarriage as aforesaid from the 
services, employment, use, claim or demand of any such 



14 History of The 

master, mistress or dame so offendinq; as aforesaid. And 
all children born of such free born woman, so manumitted 
and free, as aforesaid, shall be free as the woman aforesaid ; 
as also the said master, mistress or dame shall forfeit the 
sum of ten thousand pounds of tobacco, one half thereof 
to the Lord Proprietor, and the other half to him or them 
that shall inform and sue for the same, to be recovered in 
any Court of Record within this Province by bill, plaint or 
information ; and any priest, minister, mag'istrate or other 
person, that shall from and after the publication hereof 
join in marriage any negro or other slave, to any English 
or otlicr white woman servant as aforesaid, shall forfeit and 
pay the sum of ten thousand pounds of tobacco, &c." 

Tlie passage of this law did not, however, set poor 
Nellie free, nor liberate her two sons, for they in 1721 
petitioned for their freedom, but the Court of Appeals 01 
Maryland (Harris and McHenry Reports, case of "But- 
ler vs. Boarmann'") decided that Nellie having been mar- 
ried to the negro slave Butler before the passage of the 
law of 1 681, she as well as her after born children were 
slaves. 

In the first half century of the British colonies the pro- 
l)ortion of negro slaves to the wdiite inhabitants was small, 
Virginia in 1650 contained but one black to fifty white 
inhabitants (Bancroft Hist., Vol. i, p. 126) and Mary- 
land still less. The white immigration could not supply 
the increasing want of fami laborers and the number of 
black slaves increased rapidly. It was then that the re- 
demptioner lost caste in the colonies south of Pennsyl- 
vania. LaW'S were enacted in Maryland, Virginia, North 
and South Carolina, placing him in some respects on a 



German Society of Maryland 15 

level with the negro slave. In Maryland he could not 
purchase nor sell anything without the permission of the 
master. If caught ten miles away from home without 
written permission of his master, he was liable to be taken 
up as a runaway, and severely punished. The person 
who harbored a runaway was fined 500 pounds of tobacco 
for each twenty- four hours, and to be whipped if unable 
to pay the fine. There was a standing reward of 200 
pounds of tobacco for capturing runaways, and the In- 
dians received for every captured runaway they turned 
in a "mlatch coat." For every day's absence from work, 
ten days were added to his time of servitude. The master 
had the right to whip his redemptioner for any real or 
imaginary offence, provided he gave him no more than 
ten lashes for each offence, which must have been a very 
difficult matter to determine, for offences may be multi- 
plied. The laws also provided for his protection. For 
excessively cruel punishment the master should be fined 
and the redemptioner set free. I presume in most cases 
this was only effective when the redemptioner had in- 
fluential friends who would take up his case. 

No public records were kept of the contracts entered 
into abroad by the redemptioners, nor of the time of the 
expiration of their service. The redemptioners were not 
furnished with duplicates of their contracts. They were 
sometimes, and could be, mortgaged, hired out for a 
shorter period, sold and transferred, like chattel, by their 
masters. (Md. Archives, 1637-50, pag. 132, 486). The 
redemptioners belonging to the poor and most of them 
to the ignorant class, it is apparent that under these condi- 
tions they were at a great disadvantage against a ra- 



i6 History of The 

pacious master who kept them in servitude after the ex- 
piration of their true contract time, claiming their services 
for a longer period. 

For many years the redemptioner had come princi- 
pally from England, Ireland and Scotland. The grow- 
ing abuses of the system having become known in Eng- 
land, rigorous laws and measures were adopted and en- 
forced in England for their better protection, and letters 
and articles appeared in the newspapers warning the poor 
people from entering these contracts. Public opinion had 
set against them. 

The German Redemptioners. 

The great German immigration commenced with the 
landing of the German Quaker in Gennantown, 1683, in 
Pennsylvania; the Labadist, 1684, in Maryland; the 
Palatinates, 1709, in New York; the Menonites, 171 7 to 
1727, in Pennsylvania; the Tunkers, 1719, and Schwenk- 
felders, 1730 to 1734, in Pennsylvania; the Salzburgers, 
1734, in G€orgia; 1735 to 1745, the South Germans in 
South Carolina, and 1710 in North Carolina. These 
were organized German immigrations under leaders. Not 
a single redemptioner is reported from among them. 
Nor do we find that any of the 1,060 Germans who arrived 
in the years 1753 to January, 1755 (earliest and later 
records missing) at Annapolis, Maryland, were sold as 
redemptioners. Hon. Cecilius Calvert, acting Pro- 
prietary of Maryland during the minority of Frederick. 
Sixth Lord of Baltimore, in a letter sent from London to 
the authorities in Annapolis recommends : 



German Society of Maryland 17 

"That these emigrants maybe assisted and accommodated 
in a proper manner to Monocacy (which he understood to 
be in Frederick County) or where else they shall want to 
go to settle within the Province. The charges for any serv- 
ice to be in the most moderate manner. The increase of 
people being always welcome" (Fifth Annual Report of 
History of Germans in Maryland, p. 15). 

It is uncertain when the first German redemptioner 
arrived in Maryland, and it is doubtful whether many 
arrived here before the War of Independence. 

As wages advanced the trade of shipping redemptionei's 
to this country became highly lucrative. Large profits 
were made in a successful voyage with a full cargo of 
huiman beings, who, on their arrival here, were sold to 
the highest bidder for a term of years. 

The Dutch who in 1620 had sent the first cargo of \ 
negro slaves to this country, and had amassed great 
wealth in the pursuit of the negro slave trade from dis- 
tant Africa, discovered that it was less troublesome and 
equally remunerative to engage in a sort of a white slave 
trade by shipping redemptioners from their ow^n country, 
Germany, Swntzerland and adjoining countries, to the 
American colonies. The shipping merchants of Holland 
would send regular agents, or drummers as we now 
would call them, who received one-half of a doubloon for 
every redemptioner shipped by them into these colonies. 
These agents generally appeared in gaudy dress, with 
flourish of trumpets, and in glowing language depicted 
the wealth and happiness of the people of this country, 
w^hereof all could partake if they only would come here; 
that they did not need any money for their passage, as 



i8 History or The 

all they had to do was to sign a contract that on their 
arrival here they would pay for the same out of their first 
/ earnings. In this manner these agents would travel from 
village to village, deluding the poorest and most ignorant 
to follow them to the new Eldorado. 

Whenever such an agent had collected a sufficient num- 
ber, he would take them personally to the shipping harlx)r 
in Holland. It was a gay crowd which traveled in this 
manner in wagons across the country. The horses and 
wagons were decorated with gay ribbons, and joyous 
songs were heard from the emigrants, who believed they 
were leaving toil and poverty to go to the fabulously rich 
America to enjoy the ease and plenty of this world's 
\ ^*ods. This spirit was artificially kept up by the liber- 
ality of the agent until they were safely aboard the ship. 
I have known several very old persons living in Balti- 
more who came to this country in this manner. An old 
man related to me years ago how he came to Baltimore 
as a redemptioner. He said : 'T was a journeyman 
baker in a small town in Germany; had much work and 
scant wages. One day being dissatisfied and in bad 
humor over my condition. I was standing at the door of 
the bakery, when a well-dressed man passing by stopped 
and said:. 'What is the matter, young man? Why so 
downhearted ?' I told him my condition. 'Why,' said 
he, 'don't you go to America, where you can earn plenty 
money with much less work?' I told him that I had 
not the money to pay for my passage across. 'You don'', 
need any,' said he. 'I will take you along if you want to 
g'o. You can pay me for the passage over there out of 
the first money you will earn. If you do want to go, 



German Society of Maryland 19 

make yourself ready ; in ten days I will pass here again 
with a wagon full of emigrants for America, then you 
may go along.' He then departed. Without my boss 
knowing anything of it. I packed my clothes in a bundle 
and made ready to leave. On the appointed day my 
friend really came into the town in a fine decorated wagon 
full of emigrants. I seized my bundle, cried a farewell 
into the room where my boss with his family was sitting, 
crying to them, to their great astonishment, that I was 
off for America and jumped on the wagon. Away we 
went toward Amsterdam, full of joy and in the best of 
spirit, till we were on board of the vessel and had signed 
the contract. Then there came a change." 

The contract which these redemptioners had to sign in 
Holland, and which few of them then understood, con- 
tained the proviso, that if any passenger died on the voy- 
age, the surviving members of the family, or the surviving 
redemptioner passengers would make good his los.>^,. 
Thereby a wife, who had lost her husband during the sea 
voyage, or her children, on her arrival here would be sold 
for five years for her own voyage and additional five and 
more years for the passage-money of her dead husband or 
dead children, although they may have died in the very 
beginning of the voyage, K there were no members of 
the famiily surviving, the time of the dead was added to 
the time of service of the surviving fellow passengers. 
The effects and property of the dead were confiscated 
and kept by the captain. By this the shipping merchant 
and the captain of the vessel would gain by the death of a 
part of the passengers, for the dead did not require any 
more food and provision. It seems that many acted on 



20 



History of The 



this principle. The ships were often so overcrowded that 
a part of the passengers had to sleep on deck. Christoph 
Sauer, in his petition to the Governor of Pennsylvania ni 
1775,' asserts that at times there were not more than 
twelve inches room for each passenger (I presume he 
means sleeping room helow deck), and but half sufficient 
bread and water. Caspar Wister, of Philadelphia, in 
1752 writes : Last year a ship was twenty-four weeks at 
sea, and of the 150 passengers on board thereof, more 
than 100 died of hunger and privation, aiid the survivors 
were imprisoned and compelled to pay the entire passage- 
money for themselves and the deceased. In this year ten 
ships arrived in Philadelphia with 5 ,000 passengers. One 
ship was seventeen weeks at sea and about 60 passengers 
thereof died. Christoph Sauer, in 1758, estimates that 
2,000 of the passengers on the fifteen ships which arrived 
■ >that year died during the voyage. Heinrich Keppele, the 
first president of the German Society of Pennsylvania, 
writes in his diarv, that of the 3i2>4 passengers on board 
of the ship, wherein he crossed the ocean, 250 died during 
the voyage. In February, 1745^ Christoph Sauer relates 
in his newspaper: "Another ship has arrived. Of the 
400 passengers not more than 50 are reported alive. 
They received their bread every two weeks; some ate 
their portion in four, five and six days, which should have 
lasted 15 days. If they received no cooked victuals m 
eight days, their bread gave out the sooner, and as they 
ha^'d to wait until the 15 days were over, they starved, 
unless they had money with which to buy of the mate 
flour at three pence sterling a pound and a bottle of wine 
for seven kopstick thalers." Then he relates how a man 



German Society of Maryland 21 

and his wife, who had eaten their bread within eight days, 
crawled to the captain and begged him to throw them 
overboard to reheve them of their misery, as they could 
not survive tih bread day. The captain refused to do it, 
and the mate in mockery gave them a bag filled with sand 
and coals. The man and his wife died of hunger before 
the bread day arrived. But, notwithstanding, the sur- 
vivors had to pay for the bread which the dead ought to 
have had. 

Not on every ship were the emigrant passengers so ill 
provided for. The same newspaper reports that in 1748 
seven ships left Rotterdam with German emigrants, and 
as far as known all arrived in good health and vigor. In 
the next year twenty ships with German emigrants left 
Rotterdam for Pennsylvania. One of them lost over one- 
half of its human freight by sickness, etc. In 1750 the 
government of Pennsylvania passed laws for the better 
protection of emigrant passengers, but the laws were in- 
sufficient and not enforced, and so the evil increased from 
year to year, fed by the large profits arising therefrom to 
the owners and captains of the vessels out of the per- 
nicious redemptioner system. It rivaled the horrors of 
the slave trade in its heartless cruelty. To what extent 
this redemptioner system could be abused is shown by the 
authentic and pathetic story of the zvhite slave, Sally 
Miiller^ ^..^ 

In the year 181 7, three vessels, the ship "Emanuel," 
300 tons; the brig "Juffer Johanna," 370 tons, and the 
brigantine "Johanna Maria" sailed from the port of 

*Prof. Hanno Deiler, Geschichte der Deutschen am Mississipp', 
1901, New Orleans. 



22 History of The 

Helcler, in Holland, with i,ioo redemptioners for New 
Orleans, La. They arrived there after a passage of about 
four months on the sixth of March, 1818, with only 597 
redemptioners on board, the others (503) had perished 
during the passage by sickness, from want of food, water 
and medical attendance. The survivors testified that, 
although there had been sufficient provision on board of 
the vessels, the officers and sailors withheld it to extort 
whatever money the passengers might have, and that the 
water was foul and full of long wortiis. Entire families 
perished and many children who thus had lost their 
parents were landed. The 'horrible suffering of these 
people became known and great indignation and excite- 
ment was aroused in the city of New Orleans, so that 
fourteen days thereafter the legislature of Louisiana 
passed laws for the better protection of emigrants and 
the governor was directed to appoint two or more compe- 
tent men as commissioners to board incoming immigrant 
vessels to examine their shipping contracts, and afford 
them the protection of the law; and especially prohibiting 
the sale of the survivors for the payment of the passage 
money of their fellow passenger who had died during the 
voyage. 

Already, on the 9th of March, 1818, three days after 
the arrival of the vessels. Senator Clark offered in the 
senate of Louisiana a resolution: "that a committee be 
appointed to join a committee as may be appointed by the 
house of representatives to ascertain what number of 
children there are among the German and Swiss redemp- 
tioners lately arrived in this port : their names and prob- 
able ages; whether any have been sold, and, if sold, to 



German Society of Maryland 23 

whom, and at what prices, and to report as early as pos- 
sible to the legislature." 

The resolution was adopted in the senate by nine to one 
vote, but failed to pass the next day in the house of repre- 
sentatives. If it had passed the fate of the little German 
girl, which was then sold and kept for twenty-seven years 
in slavery as a colored person, ignorant of her white 
descent, married to a negro slave to whom she gave birth 
of three children, would have been different. 

Her name was Salome (called Sally) Mueller, then in 
her third year of age, a daughter of Daniel Mueller, a 
shoemaker, and Dorothea Mueller, his wife, born in the 
village of Langensulzbach, in Elsass. 

In 18 1 7 Daniel Mueller, with his wife and four chil- 
dren, a boy eight years old, two younger girls, Dorothea 
and Sally and a baby, his brother George Mueller, a lock- 
smith, with his wife and twO' sons ; the family Kropp and 
their daughter Eva, sixteen years old, a cousin of Sally, 
the families Kolhofer, Thickner and a Mrs. Schutz- 
heimer, a friend and neighbor of Mueller who was mid- 
wife at the birth of Sally, and others of the village of 
Langensulzbach, were emigrants on the aforenamed brig 
"Juffer Johanna.'" The wives of both the Mueller 
brothers died on the high sea and the baby fo'llowed in 
the watery grave. Then Eva Kropp took care of her 
little cousin Sally and on landing in New Orleans, Eva, 
although sold in service as a redemptioner, was willing 
to keep Sally with her, but Sally's father would not con- 
sent to it. The father with his children had been sold as 
a redejnptioner to Fitz John Miller, the owner of a planta- 
tion at Attakapas, La., and he took Mueller with his three 



24 History of The 

children to his plantation. A few weeks after they left 
New Orleans. It was reported that Daniel Mueller, the 
father, had died of the fever, and soon thereafter that his 
eight-year-old boy had drowned in the river. Nothini^ 
was heard of the two little girls. Years passed, the terms 
of service of the redemptioners of the ''Jiiffer Johanna" 
expired in the course of time; Uncle George and his two 
sons became free men again, and settled and prospered 
in Woodville, Missouri. 

The memory of the terrible experience these redemp- 
tioners had endured in their long voyage across the ocean 
remained a bond of common sympathy and the fate of the 
two missing children was a theme of frequent inquiry 
and conversation among them. Their Uncle George 
Mueller made several journeys in search for his lost 
nieces, but without finding a trace of them. The children 
seemed lost. Twenty-four years had passed and not the 
slightest information of their existence or abode had come 
to their friends and kindred, when in 1842, Madame Karl, 
a cousin and fellow passenger of them, passed the coffee- 
house of Louis Belmonti, near the levee in New Orleans. 

The door of the coffee house stood wide open and 
Madame Karl observed a woman in the room cleaning, 
who, at the same moment, looked up from her work at 
her. As Madame Karl saw the features and eyes of the 
woman, she stood as petrified, the apparition of a woman 
dear and near to her who had perished on their dreadful 
voyage appeared to her. Trembling and without breath, 
she stared at the woman, and in the next minute she 
rushed into the room with the cry, "You are Sally Muel- 
ler, my cousin," and embraced her with tears of joy. 



German Society of Maryland 25 

The woman was utterly surprised, assuring Madame 
Karl that she was mistaken in her, as she was Mary Brid- 
get, a colored woman, a slave belonging to Mr. Belmonti, 
who had bought her of Fitz John Miller, of Attakapas, 
and that she did not know anything of her parents or 
relatives. 

Madame Karl, however, felt that she was not mistaken. 
The long lost child was found, her figure, the black hair, 
the eyes, nose, chin and general appearance were too 
striking like the deceased mother, Dorothea Mueller, to 
admit of a mistake. 

She persuaded the w^oman to go with her to her cousin 
Eva Kropp, who was married to Franz Schubert, who 
had been one of the redemptioners on the "Juffer 
Johanna." Mary Bridget was kindly treated by Mr. Bel- 
monti, whO' allowed her much freedom. She went with 
Madame Karl to the suburb Lafayette, the home of the 
Schuberts. Mrs. Eva Schubert happened to be standing 
in her house door. Seeing them coming, she greeted from 
afar Madame Karl, who had not been to visit her for some 
time. Madame Karl, however, pointed to her companion, 
the slave, and asked, "Do you know her?" " 'My God! 
this is one of the Mueller's children, my cousin Sally,' " 
cried Mrs. Schubert, and rushed to the slave, and her 
husband, who came to the door and seeing the slave, ex- 
claimed : "Isn't this one of the lost children?" There 
was no doubt with them that the slave, Mary Bridget, 
was the lost Sally Mueller. 

All Lafayette had heard the sad story of the lost chil- 
dren and now, when it was rumored that one of them had 
been found, the people rushed to Schubert's house to ste 



26 History of The 

her. Mrs. Schiitzheimer, the midwife at the birth ot 
Sally, recognized her, and, when a doubt was expressed 
whether her owner, Belmonti, would credit the identity 
of his slave to be Sally Mueller, she called attention to tw^o 
very peculiar birth marks which Sally, the child, had 
inside of each of her thighs and which Mrs. Eva Schubert, 
who had taken care of and washed the child for three 
months after the death of her mother on board of the ves- 
sel, well knew, and often when the lost children were the 
subject of conversation the female redemptioner had 
remarked that there would be no difficulty in establishing 
the identity of Sally by reason of these peculiar birth 
marks on her body. The woman now took the slave to 
Mrs. Schubert's bed-roomi, and the birth marks were 
found. Mrs. Schubert at once went to Mr. Belmonti and 
claimed the freedom of his slave as a free born white 
woman, her cousin Sally Mueller. Mr. Belmonti refused 
to give her up, but mentioned that Miller, of Attakapa.s, 
shortly after the sale by him to Belmonti of the slave, 
had said to him that Bridget had as much claim to her 
freedom as a free born woman and for him to treat her 
well and kindly, so she would remain in his service. And 
Belmonti further remarked, "If I had then a pistol with 
me, I would have shot Miller." 

Mr. Belmonti now restrained his slave in her freedom 
and from intercourse with her relatives and threatened 
her with bodily chastisement if she failed to obey. 

Her relatives and friends then caused a petition for her 
freedom to be filed in the first district court of New 
Orleans. Judge Biichanan and many prominent Ger- 
mans contributed money to pay the costs, expenses and 



German Society of Maryland 2^ 

lawyers' fees in the celebrated and protracted case. The 
renowned attorneys, W. Upton, Christian Roselius (also 
a former redemptioner), F. Upton, and Bonford appeared 
for Sally Mueller, and Messrs. Grymer, Micon, Canon, 
Sigur and Caperon were the attorneys for Behiionti ; 
Franz Schubert gave bail of $i,ooo when Sally, for an 
attempt to leave Belmonti, was thrown into prison. On 
the 23rd day of May, 1845, the trial commenced. Wit- 
nesses who lived near Kattakapas in the years of 1820 to 
1824 testified that the child, Mary Bridget, was called the 
"Dutch Girl;" doctors te-^tified that the birth marks on 
the body of Sally Mueller could not be produced by arti- 
ficial means. Numerous witnesses testified to her family 
resemblance of the Muellers and that she was a wliite per- 
son; but there were also witnesses to the contrary pro- 
duced by Fitz John Miller, who testified that they knew 
of negro slaves as white in color and features as Sally 
Mueller. The case went up to the court of appeals of 
Louisiana and, on the 23rd day of June, 1845, Sally 
Mueller was declared a free born w*hite person, the daugh- 
ter of Daniel Mueller, deceased. Aside of the testimony 
of the relatives, the presence of the birth marks were con- 
sidered as of w^eight in establishing her identity. Sallie 
Mueller had only a dim recollection that she had been in 
early childhood on board of a vessel at sea. She had no 
recollection of her sister who forever remained lost, nor 
of how she had come to Attakapas. On obtaining her 
freedom she lived with her cousin, Mrs. Schubert. She 
later left the city and is reported to have married a white 
man named Frederick King with whom she went to Cali- 
fornia. 



28 History of The 

The sale of free white persons as redemptioners to free 
negroes does not appear isolated, for we read in section 
XIII, Louisiana Digest of Civil Laws, 1808: 

"Whereas free colored persons in violation of the true 
intent and meaning of the law passed on June 7th, 1806, 
have bought the service of wliite persons, etc." The act 
then annuls all such contracts and instructs the attorney- 
general to proceed against those who do not immediately 
release the persons so in their service. 

In Pennsylvania and Maryland the service of the Ger- 
man redemptioners were usually bought by Germans or 
their descendants of earlier immigration and stood there- 
fore on a more social equality Avith their fellow men. It 
is known that many of these redemptioners after their 
years of service rose by their industry, skill and economy 
to wealth and influence. 

The author in his youth was acquainted with several 
old gentlemen of wealth and high social standing in Balti- 
more city, who, in their youth, had come here as redemp- 
tioners. 

But with all this, Freiherr von Fiirstenwerther, who 
traveled in America in 181 7, in his book relates that two 
free negroes had bought in Baltimore two German fami- 
lies as redemptioners and that the German citizens of 
Baltimore hearing of it, at once contributed the money 
and bought their freedom and took proper measures to 
prevent a rejjetition of such occurrence. 

Whilst there were many abuses of redemptioners in 
their service, it was the horrors of the ocean trip across 
from Europe which was the principal cause for the forma- 
tion of the "Gemian Societies" in the Atlantic ports in 
the eighteenth centur3^ 



German Society of Maryland 29 

The German newspapers in Pennsylvania were in those 
years numerous and influential. (Benj. Franklin pub- 
lished three.) Christian Sauer, and after his death in 
1757 his son. Christian Sauer, Jr., in their Germantown 
paper, especially, published the terrible suffering, lists of 
the dead and horrors on these Dutch emigrant vessels and 
appealed to the governor and authorities for redress. 

It was then on the 26th of December, 1764, that sixty- 
five citizens of Philadelphia, Germans or of German 
descent, among them men of wealth and influence, met 
in the Lutheran schoolhouse and organized the renowned 
"German Society of Pennsylvania" for the protection and 
aid of German immigrants and their descendants. It was 
a strong organization from its beginning. Heinricli 
Keppele, a wealthy German merchant, was its first presi- 
dent from 1764 to 1 78 1. In the first year of its existence, 
1765, it procured better laws from the legislature for the 
protection of the emigrants and remained vigilant as to 
the strict observance of the same. It cared for the 
indigent sick and assisted the poor. Illustrious men 
deemed it an honor to serve as officers. Major General 
Muhlenberg, of the Revolutionary War, whose statue 
adorns the hall of fame in the national capitol at Wash- 
ington; his brother, Fr. H. Miihlenberg, the president of 
the first house of congress, and other prominent famous 
men have been its presidents and officers. In 1806 it 
erected a fine building, maintained schools, opened a large 
library, helped the poor, and as a strong public spirited 
organization after 144 years of existence promises for 
generations to come to diffuse the humane sentiments of 
its noble founders. 



30 HiSTOKY OF The 



THE GERMAN SOCIETY OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH 
CAROLINA, 

Organized January 15th, 1766. 

It is not generally known that the colon}^ of South 
Carolina had an early and numerous German immigra- 
tion. In 1675 many Hollanders and Germans settled on 
James Island and founded Jamestown. Rev. Pastor 
Dolzius, one of the leaders of the Salzburger refugees, 
who settled in 1734 on the Savannah river, in Georgia, 
mentions in his diary that Germans were inhabitants of 
Charleston, S. C. ; in the years from 1730 to 1750, Ger- 
mans constantly arrived by English ships and settled in 
the western parts near the border of the Indian country. 
In 1735 an organized congregation under tlieir pastor. 
Rev. Johann Giessendanner, came and settled Orange- 
burg. On the forks of Saluda and Broad river so many 
Germans had settled that it was called "Dutch Forks." 
In 1760 there were numerous German settlements at Hard 
Labor Creek, in Edgefield ; Lexington, Newberry, 
Spartanburg, Laurens and Richland. In 1763 a Baron 
Sttimpel, a Prussian officer who had obtained from the 
English government a grant of a large tract of land in 
South Carolina, induced about 600 Rhinelanders to follow 
him to his new possession. On the way across his money 
gave out and he abandoned them. They arrived in the 
spring of 1764 in two ships at Charleston short of funds.'-' 
The legislature granted them 500 pounds sterling and 200 

*Rainsay's History of South Carolina, 1800. 



German Society of Maryland 31 

muskets with ample ammunition and sent them under 
the escort of Captain Calhoun to the Geitiian district 01 
Saxe-Cobourg in the western part of the colony, where 
they settled on land given to them. In 1752 the first Ger- 
man Lutheran Church was organized in Charleston. Rev. 
Johann Luft was the first pastor; his successors were the 
pastors, Rev. Johann S. Hahnbaum, Rev. Friedrich 
Daser, Rev. Christian Streit, Rev. Johann Christopher 
Faber, Rev. Matthias Friedrichs, Rev. Carl Faber, and 
181 1 Rev. Dr. Johann Buchanan, under whom it became 
an English Lutheran Church. 

Michael Kalteisen, the first president of the German 
Society of Charleston, S. C, is first mentioned in the 
year 1762 as a partner of the firm of "Braun & 
Kalteisen," merchants. He was very popular and con- 
sidered the leading citizen of the German population of 
the city to whom they would go for advice and assistance. 
The arrival of the destitute 600 emigrants of Baron 
Stiimpel's ill-starred enterprise, abandoned by their leader 
and assisted by the colony, and hearing of the organiza- 
tion of the humane "German Society" in Philadelphia, 
induced Kalteisen to appeal to his friends to meet in his 
house to form a similar society in Charleston. On the 
fifteenth day of January, 1766, fifteen citizens met and, 
after due deliberation, organized "The German Friendly 
Society of Charleston," which now, after an existence of 
over 142 years, is still in full vigor of life, continuing the 
good work and noble principle of its founders. Michael 
Kalteisen was elected its first president, and held that 
ofiice for the next eight years. The society prospered 
and at the breaking: out of the revolution it had a hundred 



32 History of The 

members and so well financially provided that its patriotic 
members advanced the revolutionary government of the 
state in its struggle for independence in the war from 
1776 to 1782 out of the funds of the society the sum of 
£2,300. Kalteisen, an ardent American patriot, on the 
1 2th day of July, 1775, set on foot the plan of a German 
military organization, which, under the name of the Ger- 
man Fusileers. in 1776, numbered over a hundred mem- 
bers, Kalteisen being its second lieutenant. These fusi- 
leers* took an honorable part in the war. In 1779 they 
took part in the battle at Port Royal and with the conti- 
nental army under General Lincoln in the siege of Savan- 
nah, where their Captain Scheppert was killed in the same 
assault in which General Pulaski fell. 

After the war Kalteisen served in the first and several 
succeeding legislatures of South Carolina. 

On the 1 8th day of July, 1794, he was appointed cap- 
tain of artillery and engineers of the regular United States 
Anmy," and given the command of Port Johnson in the 
Charleston harbor, which command he retained until his 
death was announced on the 3rd day of November, 1807, 
by the firing of seventeen guns from the fort, which were 
answered by the same number of giuis from boats in the 
harbor, and all flags in town and shipping were placed 
at half-mast. He was bom at Wachtelsheim, in Wtirtem- 
burg, and died at the age of 79 years, 4 months and 17 
days. 

He remained all his life an active member and took a 
deep interest in the affairs of his beloved German society. 

*Gcrman Pioneer, Cincinnati, 1871, General Wagner, 1736-40. 
'Heitman's Historical Register of U. S. Army for 1789-1903. 



German Society of Maryland 33 

It was at his special request that his remains were buried 
in a vault under the hall of the fine building- which the 
society had erected on Archdale street in the year 1801. 
A costly memorial of fine marble with appropriate inscrip- 
tion was placed in front of the vault. The bombardment 
of Charleston by the Union forces on the 17th of Septem- 
ber, 1864, destroyed the building, memorial and vault. 
A new vault has been built with suitable inscription. In 
the year 1803 the society opened a German school, 
w^herein beside German and English, Latin and Greek 
were taught and twenty poor children were instructed 
free of charge. In 1805 a German library was opened. 
A special fund was set aside for the assistance of German 
emigrants in distress, which amounted in the years 1850 
to i860 to over $50,000, and about $1,500 were annually 
disbursed in support of widows and orphans of Charles- 
ton. 

In 1 79 1 the society was incorporated with a member- 
ship of 169 and a capital of $8,643.58 and continued to 
prosper financially so that at the time of the destruction 
of their building by the bombardment in 1863 it had a 
capital of more than $100,000, which, being invested 
mostly in southern securities, was like its membership 
materially reduced by this calamity. The remaining 
miembers, steadfast in their devotion to its noble humane 
work, continued with renewed energy and gained mem- 
bers now also citizens of English, Scotch and Irish 
descent. They bought a lot of ground for the erection 
of a new building and, in 1866, January 17th, celebrated 
the first centennial of its existence, in which celebration 
most all societies of Charleston took part. After religious 



34 History of The 

services in the St. John's Lutheran German Church a 
banquet was held. Rev. John Buchanan, who, at the 
fiftieth annual celebration had rendered the same service, 
delivered the oration. The society at the Charleston 
Exhibition in the year 1902 celebrated a jubilee banquet 
at which 250 persons took part, among- them the officials 
and most prominent citizens of Charleston. 

The German Society of Maryland next in time was 
organized not later than the year 1783 and its interesting 
history will hereinafter be given at large and in detail as 
far as the records, not lost or destroyed by the great fire 
of 1904, are available. 

The fourth of these societies was organized on the 23rd 
day of August in the year 1784 by thirteen citizens of the 
city O'f New York under the name of The German Society 
ef New York. 

Col. Heinrich E. von Lutterloh 'was its first president, 
and Col. Friedrich von Weissenfels (both officers in the 
Revolutionary Army) its vice-president. General von 
Steuben was president from: January 21, 1795, to January 
25, 1804. This large and influential society, which by 
its report for the year 1903 shows a membership of 1,070 
and a capital of $181,001.34, and by its employment 
bureau in 1903 assisted 10,801 persons, has had amongst 
its officers many renowned men. Philip D. Arcularius 
was president 1804-06; George Arcularius, 1 810-12 and 
1824-26; Jacob Lorillard, 1819-21 and 1835-37; Johann 
Jacob Astor, 1837-45; L. W. Faber, 1841-45; Gustav 
Schwab, 1855; Sigmund Kauffman, 1874, Gustav H. 
Schwab, 1903-06. 



German Society of Maryland 35 



THE GERMAN SOCIETY OF MARYLAND. 

The records of the organization and of the early period 
until the year 181 7 of this society are lost. We do not 
know the exact date of its organization. Travelers who 
visited North America in the eighteenth century mention 
its existence, and Franz Loher in his admirable history 
of the Germans in America (Cincinnati, 1847, p. 81) 
states that it was organized at the same time, ^'1764." 
when the Pennsylvania Society was founded. This date 
being, however, uncertain, we will take a short review of 
the conditions of the German inhabitants of the State of 
Maryland generally and especially of the inhabitants of 
Baltimore before and within the period of its probable 
beginning. 

Dr. E. J. Wolf and L. Beard write in their Church 
History : 

In 1710 some of the Palatinates settled in Frederick 
County, in and about the year 1720 they built the first 
church in said county at their settlement called Jerusalem. 
In 1733 the German settlers erected a church at the Mon- 
ocacy river and in 1735 at Frederick. The missionaries Rev. 
Melchior Muhlenburg and Rev. Michael Schlatter report 
in 1 747- 1 748 to Germany that more than 1,000 German set- 
tlers lived in the valley of the Monocacy. William Eddis, 
an officer under Governor Eden, in Maryland, in the years 
1769 to 1776, in his Letters to a friend in England pub- 
lished 1792 in London under the title "Letters from Amer- 
ica," writes that it was the immigration of the Germans who 



36 History of The 

mainly increased the population of Maryland and by their 
industry developed the colony. 

The Germans in the years 1732 to 1776 settled largely 
Western Maryland from Baltionore to the western 
boundary lines. In 1771, and again in 1773, they elected 
Jonathan Hager as a member of the Legislature of Mary- 
land. He was a German immigrant and the laws of Eng- 
land prohibited any person not born an English subject 
to be a member of a legislative body. The legislature 
of Maryland passed an enabling act which had to be 
approved by Lord Baltimore, the proprietor of the 
Province. 

Governor Eden of Maryland, in his letter of January 
23, 1773, to Lord Dartmouth in England, writes: 

'T should be extremely sorry if the Explanation I am to 
give to your Lordship of the motive for passing the Acts, 
Cap I should not prove satisfactory ; for I can venture to 
assure your Lordship that this Act was not intended to 
contravene the Statute in any degree, and that the People, 
in whose Favor it was passed, have the merit of being most 
useful subjects. In consequence of the Encouragement 
given by Statute, a great Number of German Emigrants 
have settled in North America, particularly in Pennsyl- 
vania, and the frontier counties of Maryland. They are 
generally an industrious laborious People. Their Improve- 
ment of a Wilderness into well stock'd Plantations, the Ex- 
ample, and beneficial Effects of their extraordinary In- 
dustry, have raised, in no small Degree, a Spirit of Emula- 
tion among the other Inhabitants. That they are a most 
useful People, and merit the public Regard is acknowledged 
by all who are acquainted with them." 



German Society of Maryland 37 

Germans were among the first settlers of Bialtimore. 
As early as May 2, 1754, Governor Sharp of Maryland 
in his report to Lord Baltimore, the proprietor of the 
province, mentions the Germans as the best element 
among the inhabitants of Baltimore. In the year 1750, 
when "Baltimore Town" contained but 25 honses and 
less than 200 inhabitants, the first German Reformed 
Congregation of Baltimore town was organized. It is 
still in existence, now located on North Calvert, near 
Read street. It erected its first church about the year 
1756 on North Charles street, near Saratoga street. The 
German Lutherans, until the year 1756, 'worshiped in the 
same building with the Refonned and about that year- 
separated and proceeded to purchase a lot of ground on 
Saratoga street, then called Fish street. Not having 
enough money to erect a churdh building, they built a 
school-house, wherein they held their religious services 
on Sundays and holidays until they had accumulated a 
capital to erect a house of worship on Gay street, now 
called 'The Zion Church." Mr. Moritz Worschler was 
their worthy schoolmaster. We find him 'mentioned in 
the annals of the church from the year 1758 to the year 
1773. The Rev. Philip Wilhelm Otterbein in 1774 organ- 
ized on Conway, near Sharp street, the so-called "Otter- 
bein Church," a German Lutheran congregation of a 
large membership, out of which developed the numerous 
sect calling themselves "The United Brethren in Christ." 
German professional men, merchants, mechanic^ and 
artisans came in the eighteenth century in large numbers 
to Baltimore, mostly direct from Germany, and many 
from York county and other parts of Pennsylvania. In 



38 History of The 

the year 1764 Nicholas Hasselbach, a printer and paper- 
maker, cajme from Philadelphia and settled with his lam- 
ily in Baltimore. He had been in the paper-making, 
printing" and publishing- business in Philadelphia, where 
he landed an emigrant from Germany in August. 1749. 
He was a man of enterprise and success and had accumu- 
lated considerable wealth. He published German alma- 
nacs and religious works and, in 1762, was a member of 
the publishing firm of Ant. Armbruster and N. Hassel- 
bach, Philadelphia. He brought with him to Baltimore 
a complete outfit of German and English type and print- 
ing press. Being established in Baltimore, he published 
school and other books, etc., in the German and English 
language and contemplated publishing a German transla 
tion of the Bible. Only one specimen of his publications 
is known to be preserved to the present time. It was 
republished by George W. McCreary, assistant librarian 
of the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, 1903, 
wnth a biography of Nicholas Hasselbach, from which 
the writer has the information. Hasselbach was the first 
printer in Baltimore. Shortly after his arrival here, July 
6, 1765, he purchased a lot of ground 33x99 feet of what 
is now No. 414 East Baltimore street from Thomas Har- 
rison; in 1768 a lot corner of Charles and Pratt streets; 
in 1769 a lot southeast corner of Gay and Lombard 
streets, and a lot south side of Mercer street. 

On his death his estate was assessed at $50,000. 

In 1769 he went on a business trip to Europe and was 
lost at sea. In the year 1773 his widow sold his printing 
materials to William Goddard, who, August 20, 1773, 
issued the first number of the first newspaper published 



German Society of Maryland 39 

in Baltimore under the title of "The Maryland Journal 
and Baltimore Advertiser" and "The Baltimore Ameri- 
can." Hasselbach and his family were members of the 
first German Reformed Congregation. 

As early as 1779, less than three years after the 
Declaration of Independence, a resolution was introduced 
in the senate of the general assembly of Maryland that 
Messrs. Hanson. Beale and Fischer translate into the 
German language certain acts of the assembly, and, in 
1787, it was ordered by the house of delegates that the 
printer of Fredericktown be directed to translate into the 
German language the proceedings of the Committee on 
Federal Constitution and the resolves of the general 
assembly thereou to be distributed, and print 300 copies 
to be equally distributed in Frederick, Washington and 
Baltimore counties. 

This was the first official recognition by the State of 
the existence of the German language among its inhabi- 
tants. 



40 History of The 



DR. KARL FRIEDRICH WIESENTHAL, 
The First President of the German Society of Maryland. 

One of the most prominent German citizens of Balti- 
rr <; ' ..- lown at this period was Karl Friedrich Wiesenthal, 
Ml D. He was born in Prussia in the year 1 726, studied 
medicine in Germany, and in the year 1755 emigrated to 
Baltimore, where he settled and practiced as a physician 
until his death in the year 1789. We find him a member 
of the church council of the Gemian Lutheran Zion 
Church in 1769, and he is supposed to be the annalist him- 
self to whom we owe the interesting chronicles of the 
Zion Church, compiled by Rev. Henry Scheib and pub- 
lished by the society of the History of the Germans in 
Maryland, Second Annual Report, 1887-88, p. 57. Dr. 
Wiesenthal in 1762 was one of the committee of five 
to negotiate for the purchase of the ground whereon the 
church and schoolhouse were to be erected, and to facili- 
tate the purchase he bought part of the ground for him- 
self. He appears at the head of the 147 subscribing mem- 
bers of the Rules and Reg^ulations of the Church adopted 
in 1773; he was a member of the church council, and on 
April 3, 1787, for the last time, elected as the presiding 
member thereof. Dr. Wiesenthal was not only a good 
Christian, a successful physician, but also a true patriot 
and public-spirited citizen. During the War of Inde- 
pendence he warmly espoused the cause of the patriots 
and his services and advice were of great value to the 
State and country. 



German Society of Maryland 41 

In 1 77 1 he became naturalized. In January, 1775, he 
was made a meimiber of the Committee of Observation of 
Baltimore County and in December of the same year he 
received the appointment of superintendent of the manu- 
facture of saltpetre for the State to be used in the making 
of gunpowder. On March 2, 1776, he was commis- 
sioned by the council a surgeon-major of the First >.v- 
land Battalion, commanded by Colonel Smallwood. m 
a letter to the council of safety, written at this time and 
still extant, he expresses his willingness to assist the cause 
to the extent of his power, strength and abilities and to 
go with the troops wherever they should be ordered. On 
the 1 2th of March he published an appeal to the public 
for linen and old sheeting for bandages. In the sa/me 
year he was medical purveyor for the Maryland troops 
and examiner of candidates for medical positions in the 
service. In 1777 he was made surgeon-general of the 
Mar}-land troops. Dr. Wiesenthal owned and resided 
in a brick dwelling on the southeast corner of Gay and 
Fayette streets, extending to Frederick street. In the 
parts extending on Frederick street, which are still stand- 
mg. Dr. Wiesenthal and after his death, his son, Andrew 
Wiesenthal, M. D., conducted a medical school and a dis- 
secting room. See advertisement in No. 59 ■1796) Der 
Neue Unparteiische Baltimore Bote und Maryland Staats-- 
Register, Mittwoch, May 4 (The New Impartial Mes- 
enger and Maryland State Register of Wednesday, May 
4, 1796), a weekly German newspaper published in Balti- 
more by Samuel Sauer, wherein Dr. Wiesenthal offers to 
several students comforts in his house, where they will 
have advantages as perhaps nowhere else in this country 



42 History of The 

can be found in instruction in dissection, etc. In the same 
year Dr. Andrew Wiesenthal delivered a course of lec- 
tures on anatomy in Baltimore. The German physicians, 
Dr. Wilhelm Zollickoffer, Dr. Henry Keerl, Dr. John 
Peter Ahl and others were also practicing in Baltimore in 
those years. There is only the one No. 59 of the New 
Impartial Messenger, etc., preserved. It is in a glass 
frame in our city library. The heading of the paper 
indicates that there were German newspapers published 
in the city of B^altimore prior to the New Impartial Mes- 
senger and the addition of "Maryland Staats-Register" 
indicates that there was a merger of a former separate 
Maryland State Register. These German publications., 
wherein we most likely would find the date of the begin- 
ning of the German Society of Maryland being lost, a 
search in "Griffith's Annals of Baltimore" in the library 
of the Maryland Historical Society disclosed on page 703 
the following entry : 

"1783, directly after the Peace, several merchants from 
other States and other parts of this State settled here, 
among whom were Messrs. Slubey, Dall, Stauffer, Stark, 
Kinimel, Isaac Salomon and Johannot, and a number of 
European gentlemen, among whom were Grundy, Coop- 
man, Schroeder, Seekamp, Koneke, Zollickoffer, Valk. By 
the Minerva, Capt. Bels, Harmony and other vessels there 
were brought a great many Irish and German Redemption- 
ers and A Society for the Aid of the Germans, Not 
Speaking the Language of the Country, was formed." 

In Quinan, Medical Annals of Baltimore, we find, 
"year 1782, page 15, Dr. Henry Keerl arrived from Ger- 



German Society of Maryland 43 

many," and, "in 1784. Dr. Charles F. Wiescnthal, physi- 
cian to the German Society," and later, "Dr. William 
Zollikoffer." 

In the Maryland Journal of Tuesday, August 10, 1784, 
the following thanks of the society were published : 

'"To Capt. Clans Kulkens, of the Brig Lavater: 

"Sir : The brutal advantage which has been taken by some 
Masters of Vessels, of their power over their passengers, 
has induced a number of inhabitants of this place, (in imi- 
tation of their brethren in Philadelphia) to form themselves 
into a Society, for the protection of such of their country- 
men as may be induced to come to this State, and guard 
them from the oppression and barbarity of unfeeling men. 

"Upon inquiry concerning the usage of the people on 
board of your brig 'The Lavater,' we find, with peculiar 
satisfaction, that your attention to those principles which 
should animate a Christian heart, has rendered their situa- 
tion as easy and comfortable as circumstances would per- 
mit. We cannot, sir, restrain our strong desire we feel of 
expressing to you our warmest acknowledgments, and pub- 
licly to offer you our sincerest thanks, which we consider 
as the smallest Tribute due, for your generosity and tender- 
ness. 

By Order of the German Society 

John Conrad Zollikoffer, Sec. 

Baltimore, August 9th, 1784." 

These notes point to the year 1783 as the beginning of 
the "German Society of Maryland," especially as they 
refer to the arrival of many Irish and German redemp- 
tioners at that time. The abuse and misery these poor 



44 History of The 

people suffered on their sea voyage had aroused the Ger- 
mans in Philadelphia in 1764 to organize for their aid 
and protection, and as John Conrad Zollikoffer says : It 
was in imitation of their brethren of Philadelphia they 
formed themselves into a society. The historian, Loher, 
says the Maryland society, was formed about the same 
time (1764) and the Charleston, S. C, was undoubtedly 
formed in 1766 in imitation of the Pennsylvania society. 
Whatever year it may have been, family tradition and 
other notes point to Dr. Karl Friedrich Wiesenthal as the 
prime mover and first president of the society and for a 
beginning not later than the year 1783. We shall be the 
more inclined to accept him as the founder of this noble 
humane society when we read the notice of his death 
taken from the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Adver- 
tiser of June 2, 1789. It says : "The Shaft he so often 
warded from others has pierced him at last. Yesterday 
morning, about half-past seven o'clock, departed this life 
Dr. Charles Frederick Wiesenthal, in the 63rd year of 
his age after having practiced in this town for 34 years. 
If the strictest attention in his profession which humanity 
could excite and that success which might be expected 
from superior medical abilities improved in an uncommon 
measure by reason and observation deserve to be remem- 
bered, the tears of gratitude must flow in sorrowful pro- 
fusion. He is gone ! and the pain of reflection is the more 
heightened because it is at the time when he was in daily 
expectation of the return of an absent and only son whose 
virtues and abilities are beloved and admired by all who 
know him." His son was at the time pursuing his 
studies in Europe. Who were his associates in the found- 



German Society of Maryland 45 

ing of the German Society aside of John Conrad Zol- 
likoffer and Dr. Wilhehii Zolhkoffer, we cannot state. 
Brantz Mayer, in his memoir and genealogy of the Mary- 
land Family of Mayer, which originated in the city of 
Ulm; Baltimore, 1878, states on page 36 that his father, 
Christian Mayer, on the 3rd of January, 1785, became a 
member of "the German Society." There were many 
Avealthy and public spirited German citizens, or of Ger- 
man descent, in the city in those years. W. Griffith in 
his Annals of Baltimore, printed by Frederick G. Schaef- 
fer, Baltimore, 1821, on page 72, writes in the year 1776 : 
Officers in the Gennan Company in 1776 were Peter 
Mackenheimer, George P. Keeport (Kuhbord), John 
Lohre, Christ. Myers, Samuel Gerock, John Lindenberger, 
John Mackenheimer, John Ritter and George Cole, with 
the remark, "this does not include the Rifle Company." 

Before the independence of America, England had a 
monopoly of the foreign trade of tlie country. During 
the war all foreign trade was suspended, but now, after 
the recognition by Great Britain of the independence of 
the United States, the merchants of Hamburg and 
Bremen located branch houses in Baltimore and their ves- 
sels with cargoes of linen and other products of Germany, 
and principally with immigrants, arrived here, and re- 
turned with cargoes of tobacco to their home ports. Bal- 
timore became more and more a popular port for the 
imimigrants to land from Europe and especially from Ger- 
many. Among the earliest of the Germans to land here 
after the war and but a few months after the treaty was 
John Jacob Astor from Waldorf, Germany, who came 
here as an emigrant with a few hundred dollars' worth of 



46 lliSTOKY OF The 

inusical instruments to dispose of on commission. He 
went from here to New York, where, by his industry, 
enterprise and integrity, he accumulated iiiilhons of dol- 
lars and became the president of the German Society of 
New York. John Frederick L. Amelung arrived in 1784 
with a number of glass manufacturers from Germany and 
erected an extensive factory on the Monocacy river in 
Frederick county, and in 1796, with his son, F. L. F. 
Amelung, built the glass factory on the south side of the 
basin in Baltimore city. Frederick Leypold arrived here 
about the same time, and with Charles Carts as partner, 
in the year 1784, erected a sugar refinery in South Balti- 
more. The merchants, J. B. von Kappf and — — Ansbach. 
under the firm of von Kappf & Ansbach, in 1795 estab- 
lished their extensive tobacco export and import business. 
Christian Meyer, a merchant from Ulm, Germany, w'ho, 
m 1 81 7, became the president of the German Society, 
arrived here in 1784. Heinrich Schroeder, Louis Brantz. 
Samuel Etting. Michael Kimmel. William Lorman, Dr. 
Heinrich Keerl. John H. Friese, F. W. Brune and others 
who, in later years appear as officers of the German So- 
ciety, came here in those 3^ears. The outbreak of the 
French Revolution and the NaiX)leonic wars, which lasted 
till 181 5. interrupted the trade with and the immigration 
from Germany. Very few emigrants arriving in Balti- 
more during this period from Germany, there was little 
activity of the German Society of Maryland, which then 
had for its object solely the protection of the emigrants 
on board of the vessels which broug'ht them here and on 
their arrival to guard them against oppression so that no 
unfair advantage be taken of their ignorance of the 



German Society of Maryland 47 

country, its laws and language, and advise and assist 
those who intended to settle in the interior. We only 
know of its continued existence during these years by it 
being mentioned by travelers who published their jour- 
neys. The German population of Baltimore in those 
years, many of them natives of Baltimore in the second 
and third generation, maintained a large Reformed, two 
Lutheran, a Calvinist, a Baptist and a Dunkard congre- 
gation, wherein the services were conducted in the Ger- 
man language, with parish schools. A German newspaper 
was published. Samuel Sauer, a printer who came here 
from Philadelphia in 1792, published here the following 
books in the German language : 

1795, Johann Lassencius' Politische Geheimnisse vieler 
hin und wieder heutigen Tages einreisender unartigen 
Atheisten, Gedruckt von S. Sauer und Jones. 

1795, Der heilige Krie.a^, wie derselbe gefiihrt wird von 
Christo Jesu wieder den Teufel. 

1795, Count Roderick's Castle 2 Vol. on one, printed by 
same Sauer and S. Keating. 

1796, Dem Andenken Deutscher Dichter und Philoso- 
phen, gewidmet George Washington von Deutschen in 
America, published by S. Keating. 

1796, Der Psalter des Kdnigs und Propheten Davids. 
1796, A. B. C. Buchstabier und Namen Buch. 
T797. Das kleine Davirl'sche Psalterspiel. 2 verbesserte 
Auflage nebst Appendia, Die kleine Harfe. 

1798, Der merkwiirdige Lebenslauf, die sonderbaren 
Bekehruugen und Entziickungen des verstorbenen Dr. De 
Beneville. 

1799, Christlichcs I-Ian(ll){iclilein von Johannias Tiibingcr. 
1801, Der geschwinde Rechner, Almanacs, etc. 



48 History of The 

Samuel Sauer combined with his printing estabHshment 
in partnership with WilHaim Gwinn a type foundry, which 
proA^ed a great success. 

Among the prominent citizens of these years who were 
active in pubHc affairs and in German Society were men- 
tioned : Adam Fonerden, Bakzer Schaeffer, Peter Frick, 
members of the City Council in 1797; Adam Fonerden 
became later a delegate to the Mai*yland Legislature : 
Capt. Jacob Keeport (Kuhbord), Capt. John Strieker and 
Col. John Mackenheimer, officers in the Revolutionary 
War; Michael Diffenderfer, Wilhelm Raborg. John 
Dobler, Philip Littig, Michael Schryock, Peter Sauer- 
wein, August Tegtmeyer, Ludwig Tegtmeyer, Wilhelm 
Keilholtz, Jacob Ad. Knott, Ernst Fauth, Peter Atn. 
Karthaus, Nicholas Emich, Col. Peter Afmigh, George 
Warner, Friedrich Eiseln, Peter Hoffman, Lorenz Thom- 
sen, David Hoffman, Jacob Schley, William Schroeder, 
Michael Warner, Wilhelm Krebs, Erasmus Uhler, Hein- 
rich Keerl, Justus Hoppe, Johann Leypold, Wendel 
Michael, Fred. Waesche, Ludwig Brantz, David Bixler, 
August Schwatka, Heinrich Winter, Christian Weis- 
hampel, Heinrich Dukehart, Conrad Reil, Johann Fussel- 
bach, Jacob Small. Capt. John Schirm, Christian Keller. 
Herman Alrichs, Ludwig 'Hering, Peter Gold. Captain 
Haubert, Capt. Michael Peters, Capt. Daniel Schwarz- 
man and Capt. George Steever, captains in the VVar of 
1812 to 1814. These citizens took an active interest in 
our city affairs. The city was then divided into eight 
wards and each ward was represented by two members 
in the City Council. Among the sixteen members of the 
City Council in the year 1806 the following names 



German Society of Maryland 49 

appear: First Ward, George Decker, Henry Stauffer; 
Second Ward, Jacob Small ; Third Ward, Wni. Lorman ; 
Fourth Ward, Georg-e P. Keeport; Fifth Ward, Balzer 
Schaeffer, John Shirm ; Sixth Ward, John Miller ; 
Seventh Ward, Ludwig Hering and Frederick Schaeffer. 
The names of Peter Hoffman, Adam Fonerden, Peter 
Frick, Christopher Raborg, John Mackenheimer, Samuel 
Frey, Peter Diffenderfer, John Snyder, William Warner 
and George Woelper also appear as members of the City 
Council in the years from 1807 to 18 14. 



50 History of The 



THE GERMAN CHURCHES OF BALTIMORE IN THE 
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 

The first German Reforined Congregation which in the 
OTiiddle of the eigliteenth century had its church on North 
Charles street, at or near the northwest corner of Sara- 
toga street, had divided in 1770 by a large number of its 
members withdrawing and organizing the Second Ger- 
man Reformed Congregation, which, in 1774, elected 
Rev. Philip William Otterbein as pastor and erected the 
church on Conway street, between Sharp and Hanover 
streets, where it still continues to worship in the Gemian 
language. The First Reformed Church, under the ad- 
ministration of Rev. Mr. Pomp and the leadership of 
Michael Diffenderfer, Daniel Difl:*enderfer, Peter Diffen- 
derfer, Frederick Meyers and Jacob Meyers in 1785, re- 
solved to build a larger church at the northwest corner 
of Baltimore and Front streets. The cornerstone was 
laid on the first of September, 1785, and on the 20th of 
June, 1787, the first service was held in the new church. 
The members, however, soon becajmie dissatisfied with the 
location of the church on account of the proximity of the 
Jones' Falls, which often flooded its banks au'l the noise 
of the passing vehicles crossing the nearby Baltimore 
street bridge, and authorized Jacob Hoffman, Peter Dif- 
fenderfer, George Decker and others, eighty-two male 
members voting in favor of it, to sell the church. This 
committee soon effected a sale thereof, whidi was ratified 
1)y the congregation in August, 1796. The congregation 



German Society of Maryland 51 

then bought a lot of gTound on the north side of Second 
street, nearly in the bed of iHolliday street as now cut 
through. The lot had a 100-foot front by 200 feet depth. 
Melchior Keener, Andrew Steiger, George Decker, Peter 
Dififenderfer, Nicholas Tchudy and others were the active 
committee in the erection of the new church, which was 
50 by 80 feet in dimension, with a steeple about 200 feet 
high, with three bells weighing forty-five hundred pounds 
and a large clock, which became known as the Town 
Clock. The cornerstone of this new church was laid the 
28th day of April, 1796, and it was finished in September, 
1797. The congregation increased in membership and 
influence. Many of its members were in the second, third 
and even fourth generation in this country and had grad- 
ually become estranged from the German mother tongue. 
The incessant strife of languages for domination had been 
going on. The English is the official and dominant lan- 
guage of our country, but it was not the exclusive 
language spoken by its first settlers nor is it tO' this day 
the common vernacular in every part of the United States. , 
In Maryland, and especially in Baltimore, the German 
language spoken by a respectable minority of its citizens 
was always recognized by the authorities with a friendly 
disposition, the surest and only way to overcome it. The ' 
intense, often fanatical, love which men have for the lan- 
guage of their parents or rather of their mothers, grows 
out of the subconscious memory of the sweet words of 
love caresses and kindness received in their infancy. If 
he is raised in a community where largely difi:erent lan- 
guage is also friendly spoken to him in childhood, it takes 
but one or two generations and he will lose his attach- 



52 History of The 

menit for his mother language and so it came that in 
February, 1818, Dr. Michel Diffenderfer and thirty-five 
other m^embers of the First German Reformed Congrega- 
tion petitioned the consistory for permission to have Eng- 
lish preaching in the church on every Sabbath afternoon. 
The Synod granted the petition. This caused a great 
deal of excitement and trouble. A committee consisting 
of Peter Diffenderfer and Jacob Hoffman invited Rev. 
Lewis Meyer to pay them a visit and preach in German 
and English. On a Sabbath morning in the month of 
September, 181 8, Dr. Meyer preached a sermon in the 
German language to a very large congregation, and in the 
afternoon preached another in the English language to an 
immense concourse of people. The excitement was in- 
tense. The members who feared the extinguishment oi 
the German language in their church charged it being 
done in violation of the charter and founding of the 
church to have English preaching and some of them 
threatened violence to the minister. Their fears were 
well grounded, for, within ten years thereafter, in 1827, 
the last sermon in the German language was preached in 
this church. It became exclusively English in language, 
known as the First English Reformed Church, but lost in 
membership and influence. 

Different was the course of the German Evangelical 
Lutheran Zion Congregation, which was organized about 
the same time the Reformed Church was organized 
(1750) and continues to the present day to worship in 
the German language, a vigorous large congregation. 

In the year 1773, it adopted a new constitution and by- 
laws, which were subscribed by one hundred and forty- 



I 



German Society of Maryland 53 

seven members. We find among these subscribers the 
names of many of our prominent families of our city of 
the present day. In 1808 it erected the c'hurch building 
on Gay street, between Saratoga and Lexington streets, 
on a lot of ground extending to Holliday street. The 
dimension of the building is 99 feet in length by 75 feet 
in width. The costs were $36,750.69, paid by the con- 
tribution of 265 of its members, whereof we have a com- 
plete list, published in Second Annual Report of the 
Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland, 
pages 57 to 75. 



54 History of Tii(2 



IN TIME OF WAR AND FAMINE. 

In 1 814, when the war of Great Britian with our 
country had lasted for more than a year and the Enghsh 
had suffered keenly from the many privateers fitted out 
in our harbor, Admiral Warren of the British Navy said : 
"Baltimore is a doomed town." 

The English came with a fleet of more than seventy 
ships to destroy Baltimore and, on Sunday, September 
nth, 1814, anchored off North Point twelve miles from 
the city and, on the next day, landed about 7,000 men of 
infantry, artillery, marines and sailors fully equipped for 
battle and advanced toward the city. 

Their warships proceeding up the Patapsco to bom- 
bard the city from the river, to assist the army in the 
work of capture and destruction. 

The city had heard of the threats and was informed of 
the design of the enemy and prepared to make a heroic 
defense. In August, 1814, a committee of vigilance and 
safety of 30, whereof the mayor of the city was chair- 
man, the following citizens of German birth or descent 
were members of this committee : Henry Stauffer. Solo- 
mon Etting, William Lorman, Adam Fonerden, Fred- 
erick SchaefTer, George Woelper, Herman Alrichs and 
George Warner. Philip Cronmiller, Ludwig Hering, 
Frederick Leypold, Henry Schroeder, Peter Gold and 
George Decker were among the superintendents of work 
for the erection of the fortifications. Peter Diffenderf- 
fer, William Brown and Daniel Diffenderffer were mem- 
bers of the committee on relief, and Christian Keller, 



German Society of Maryland 55 

Henry Schroeder, Balzer Schaeffer and Jacob Miller 
were members of the ward committees. Not less did 
these citizens show their patriotism and valor in defense 
of our city, to drive back the foreign invader by force of 
arms, marching out of the city to give battle to the 
enemy. General John Strieker, commanded the brigade, 
which bore the brunt of the battle of North Point on the 
1 2th of September. There was no regular army on the 
American side, they were all citizens' militia and volun- 
teers, among them were "The First Baltimore Light In- 
fantry," organized by Captam Mackenheimer. an officer 
in the continental army in the War of Independence and 
later promoted colonel. Captain John Schirm com- 
manded the company in 1814; "The Independent Com- 
pany," organized 1792 by Captain John Strieker; The 
Baltimore Jagers, commanded by Captain Philip S. Sadt- 
ler, the Union Jagers by Capt. Dominic Bader, a com- 
pany called the Gray Jagers, the Maryland Cavalry, com- 
manded by Capt. Jacob Baer, the 51st Regiment, Md. M., 
commanded by Colonel Henry Amey, who signed his 
orders Amich, and was a member of the Germ. Ev. Zion 
Churdi; Captains Haubert, Michel Peters, Andrew 
Smith, J. Matthews, Daniel Schwarzauer, George 
Stoever, John D. Miller, Thomas Warner, Andrew C. 
Warner and Henry Meyer, commanded companies in 
various regiments. We find their names again as mem- 
bers of the German Society. Our citizens of German 
birth and descent have at all times and in every emer- 
gency proven to be true Americans^ devoted to liberty 
and to the free institutions of our country : shoulder to 
shoulder with their fellow-citizens, in time of peace and 



56 History of Tiie 

time of war they liave striven and fought for the welfare 
of the nation and of the community they Hved in. 

The long series of the Napoleonic wars in Europe 
where Germany had heen the principal battle ground 
came to an end, and the United States made peace with 
England. The inhabitants of these countries could 
again pursue their peaceful industries, cultivate the soil, 
repair their shattered fortunes or traverse the ocean with- 
out molestation, to seek new homes and better conditions 
of life. 

The old fatherland had been impoverished and devas- 
tated by the ravages of war, peace now gave assurance to 
the peasant cultivating the waste fields, that he could reap 
the harvest of his crops without them being destroyed by 
passing troops or confiscated for the armies. A still 
greater calamity, however, fell upon these poor people. 
For several years after the end of the wars in 1816, 1817 
and 1818, the crops failed in northern and central 
Europe. Years of famine and general destitution pre- 
vailed in Germany; the price of a pound of bread rose to 
twenty cents, the poor people had not the money and to 
save themselves from starvation they would eat boiled 
weeds and grasses, this caused sickness and many per- 
ished. It w^as then after an interruption of about forty 
years, 1776 to 181 6, in the immigration, that the 

Great iqth Century Immigration 

of people from Germany to the United States commenced. 
The Labadists, Quakers, Menonites, Dunkers, Schwenk- 
felders, Moravians, Salzburgers and most of the palatines 
of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had left Germany 
to escape religious intolerance and cruel persecution. 



German Society of Maryland 57 

Now it was the economic condition, to escape a famine 
stricken country which caused about 60,000* persons in 
the years 1817-18 to leave their fatherland for the hospi- 
table shore of America. Most of them came from 
Wiirtemberg and the Rhenish countries, wandering along 
the roads with their scant household goods and baggage 
in horse carts or floating in barges down the river Rhine, 
bound for the ports of Holland to cross the Atlantic. 
They were mostly peasants and artisans, strong and 
healthy in body, industrious and frugal in habits, but im- 
poverished by years of war and famine, they had not the 
money to pay the passage on the ships, but very desirable 
passengers to be sold as redemptioners on their arrival in 
America. About the middle of the month of November, 
1816, upward of three hundred of these immigrants, men, 
women and children arrived at the city of Amsterdam to 
seek passage to America. The Dutdh ship "J^^^^row 
Johanna," Capt. H. H. Bleeker, offered them passage to 
Baltimore, most of them had not the money to pay for 
the passage and came as redemptioners. The ship sailed 
with its living freight on its perilous voyage in the midst 
of winter. This winter is recorded as one of the coldest 
ever known. The chronicles of Germany relate that 
the birds froze to death in the air and the game perished 
m the forests. In Baltimore, the thermometer on Feb- 
ruary 5th, 1817, registered five degrees above zero, on 
the 6th, 13th, 15th and 17th at zero, on the 14th four de- 
grees below, and on the i6th four degrees above zero. 
The Chesapeake Bay was frozen from shore to shore. It 
was in this terrible weathei that the ship "J"^^o"" 

*Loher's History, 255. 



t;8 History of The 

Johanna" with its 300 emigrants, after fifteen weeks buf- 
feting- the tempestuous Atlantic Ocean on its trip from 
Amsterdam in the first clays of February, 1817, worked 
its way in the capes and up the bay as far as off Annapo- 
lis, where it became ice-bound. 

The ship had become short of provisions, and the pas- 
sengers upon making the capes, seeing the promised land 
so near in their exultation of being shortly released from 
their long captivity in the dark hold of the ship by land- 
ing in Baltimore, had thrown their bedding, which had 
become filthy, overboard ; misery and acute suffering 
from cold and hunger set in. Communication with the 
shore being established, the condition of these poor people 
became known. 

A humane gentleman of Annapolis, thereupon, on Feb- 
ruary 7th, inserted the following appeal in the Baltimore 
American, addressed "To citizens generally and to be- 
nevolent Societies " 

"A ship with upward of 300 German men, women and 
children has arrived off Annapolis, where she is detained 
by ice. These people have been fifteen weeks on board and 
are short of provision. Upon making the Capes, their bed- 
ding having become filthy, was thrown overboard. They 
are now actually perishing from the cold and want of pro- 
vision." 

On the next day, February 8th, the following adver- 
tisement appeared in the same paper : 

German Redemptioners. 
The Dutch ship, "Jufvrow Johanna," Capt. H. H. Bleeker, 
has arrived off Annapolis from Amsterdam with a number 



German Society of Maryland 59 

of passengers, principally farmers and mechanics of all 
sorts, and several fine young boys and girls, whose time will 
be disposed of. Mr. Bolte, ship broker of Baltimore, will 
attend on board at Annapolis, to whom those who wish to 
supply themselves with good servants, will please apply ; 
also to Capt. Bleeker on board. 

The ship with the passengers aboard remained ice- 
bound, in the bay off Annapolis for about six weeks. It 
was not until the 21st day of March, when the following 
advertisement appeared in "The Baltimore American." 

German Redemptioners. 

The Dutch ship "Jo^""^""^'" Capt. H. H. Bleeker, has 
arrived before this City and lies now in the cove of Wieg- 
man's Wharf ; there are on board, desirous of binding them- 
selves for their passage, the following single men : two cap- 
ital blacksmiths, a ropemaker, a carrier, a smart apothecary, 
a tailor, a good man to cook, several young men as waiters, 
etc. Among those with families are gardeners, weavers, a 
stone mason, a miller, a baker, a sugar baker, farmers and 
other professions, etc. 

This appeared daily in the "American'' until the 7th 
day of April following, when, it may be presumed the 
last of these redemptionists, five months after they 
shipped from Amsterdam, were disposed of. 

On the 13th of February, another strong appeal was 
made in the Federal Gazette and Baltimore Daily Adver- 
tiser by one who signs himself a German descendant, for 
aid of the distressed emigrants on board of the ship 
"Johanna" ice-bound in the bay. The same paper con- 



6o History of The 

tciined a call for a meeting of Germans and descendants 
of Germans to be held at Kaminsky's Hotel on Bank near 
Light street, that evening, at 6.30 P. M. to organize for 
the better protection and assistance of German emigrants. 

The meeting was attended by many influential and 
wealthy citizens. Among the organizers and first mem- 
bers of the society we find General John Strieker, the 
commanding general of the Maryland Militia and an ofii- 
cer of the Revolutionary War; the merchants, Christian 
Mayer, B. J. von Kappf, Heinrich Schroeder, Louis 
Brantz, Frederick Leypold, Johann Hoffman, Frederick 
W. Brune, Michael Kimmel, F. L. E. Anielung, the 
founder of the first glass furnace in the State; William 
Krebs, John Frick, Samuel Keerl, John F. Fries, Peter 
Sauerwein, Frederick Waesche, Jesse Eichelberger, Dr. 
Diffenderffer, Justus Hoppe, Lewis Mayer, Philip D. 
Sadtler, J. J. Cohen, Samuel Etting, Conrad Schultz, Dr. 
A. J. Schwartz, Benjamin J. Cohen, Charles W. Kart- 
haus, Lawrence Thomson ; the eiminent attorneys, David 
Hoffman, William Frick and Charles F. Mayer. Chris- 
tian Mayer presided and William Frick, Esq., acted as 
secretary. 

The descendants of most of these are still living in 
our midst and maintain the high character, the virtues 
and influence of their ancestors. Strieker, Waesche, 
Schroeder, Hoffman, Etting, Warner, Brune and Decker 
streets perpetuate some of these names in our city. 

This imeeting was the revival of "The German Society 
of Maryland," which for a number of years, whilst there 
was no immigration, had been donnant. 



German Society of Maryland 6l 

At the next meeting of the society, which was held on 
the 1 8th of February, 1817, a constitution was adopted, 
and at the following meeting on the 3rd of March the 
following board of officers were elected : President, 
Christian Mayer; vice-presidents. Dr. A. J. Schwartz, E. 
J. von Kappf, Heinrich Schroeder and General John 
Strieker ; managers, Justus Hoppe, Louis Brantz, Conrad 
Schultz, Jacob Small, F. L. E. Amelung, William Krebs, 
John F. Frick, Samuel Keerl, John F. Friese, Peter Sauer- 
wein, Michael Kimmel and Jesse Eichelberger ; secretary 
of the society, Louis Mayer; secretary of the officers. 
Lawrence Thomson ; treasurer, Friedrich Waesche ; coun- 
sellors, David Hoffeail and William Frick, Esqs. ; physi- 
cians, John George Wolf and Jacob Baer. The objects 
of the society were declared to be : The protection and 
assistance of poor emigrants from Germany and Switzer- 
land and of their descendants who may reside in the State 
of Maryland or be temporarily sojourning therein. 

One hundred and forty-nine citizens (see appendix), 
being natives of Germany or Switzerland or the de- 
scendants of such natives, subscribed their names to the 
constitution of the society. 

That it was not only the suffering of emigrants on 
board of the ship "Juffrow Johanna," but the system o^' 
redemptioners at that time which was the cause of these 
good men to combine to remedy the evil, appears from the 
many advertisements which appeared in the newspapers 
of those days. I have selected but a few, culled from the 
"B'altimore American" of the months of March and 
April, 181 7. 



62 History of The 

On March 3 a reward is offered for the capture of a 
German redemptioner, a tailor, who absconded from 
Washington. And the following : 

For Sale or Hire. 
A German Redemptioner, for the term of two years. He 
is a stout, healthy man and well acquainted with farming, 
wagon driving and the management of horses. For further 
particulars, apply to 

C. R. Green, Auctioneer. 

On March 1 1 Patrick McCrystal offers $30 reward for 
the capture of a German redemptioner, a bricklayer. 

On March 13 Aquila H. Sparks offers $50 reward for 
an absconded German redemptioner. On April 1 1 the 
following : 

German Redemptioner. — $30 Reward. 
Absconded from the subscriber on Sunday, the 5th inst., 
a German Redemptioner, who arrived here in November 
last, by name of Maurice Schumacher, about 30 years of 
age, 5 feet, 9 inches, well proportioned, good countenance, 
but rather pale in complexion, short hair, has a very genteel 
suit of clothes, by trade a cabinet maker, but has been em- 
ployed by me in the making of brushes. He is a good Ger- 
man scholar, understands French and Latin, an excellent 
workman, speaks English imperfectly. $30 reward if lodged 
in jail. 

Jas. M. Stapleton, 

Brush Maker, 139 Baltimore St. 

The first meeting of the board of managers, comprised 
of the fifteen officers of the society, was held March 6. 



German Society of Maryland 63 

181 7, all members present. Resolutions were adopted: 
that a majority of the members present at a meeting of 
the board shall decide, the president on all occasions to be 
entitled to vote. David Hoffman, Esq., and William 
Frick, Esq., were unanimously elected counsellors, and 
Dr. John G. Wolff and Dr. Jacob Baer elected physicians 
of the society; that the constitution of the society be 
printed; that subscriptions be solicited from natives of 
Germany and Switzerland, or their descendants, living" 
within this State, and the constitution of the society be 
published in newspapers of the city and two newspapers 
in Fredericktown and Hagerstown ; that all officiating 
German clergymen residing within this State shall be con- 
sidered honorary members of this society ; that two thou- 
sand dollars ($2,000.00) of the fund of the society be 
forthwith invested in United States stock. A communi- 
cation from a certain Mr. Amy, of Georgetown, accom- 
panied by a deposition before a magistrate relative to cer- 
tain grievances of a German family by the name of Kraft, 
lately arrived in the Dutch ship "J*^hanna," Captain 
Bileeker, off Annapolis, against the said captain was re- 
ferred to the counsellors of the society. 

The president on the next day consulted the legal coun- 
sellors, Hoffman and Frick, of the society and gave the 
following direction in writing : 

To Messrs. Conrad Schultz, ^l Managers of the German 
L. E. Amelung, >■ Society 

Peter Sauerwein J of Maryland. 

After a consultation held yesterday with the counsellors 
for the Society, I beg you that just before and immediately 



64 History of The 

after the arrival in this port of Captain Bleeker, you make 
exhaustive inquiry and gather all legal evidence concerning 
the following three offenses for which the captain may he 
prosecuted ; according to reports — legal evidence of which 
is not lacking. 

1st. — That from the start of the voyage of the ship 
"Jnffrow Johanna," the passengers neither in sufficient 
quantity nor quality, received the provisions stipulated in 
the contract. 

2nd. — That the captain ignoring the contract, arbitrar- 
ily demanded of several passengers a larger sum for their 
passage, than had been agreed upon, and whereby they 
were in the true sense of the word sold and not released 
from their debt, as it should have been. 

T,rd. — That the captain seized and possessed himself of 
the clothes and effects of the passengers who died on board. 

Baltimore, March 8th, 1817. 
Christian Mayer, 

' President. 

L. Thomsen, 

Secretary of the Board. 

The next entry in the Record Book reads : 

William Frick, Esq. is requested to bring suits against 

the Master of the Netherland ship "Juffrow Johanna" upon 

all the documents in his possession. 

Baltimore, March 31, 181 7, 

approved 

C. Meyer, President. 

Louis Brantz, 

Conrad Schultz, 
Man"igers of the German Society. 



German Society of Maryland 65 

The ship "J'-^ff^'ow Johanna" had sailed for Baltimore, 
and the redemptioners expected and had the legal right to 
enter their redeeming service only in this city and State, 
but Capt. Bleeker, by advertisement, which appeared from 
February 24th to March 3rd in the Alexandria Gazette, 
in the State of Virginia, and in the National Intelligence 
in the District of Columbia, offered his passengers to be 
sold for their passage money and did sell them at the 
board of his vessel in the bay ofif Annapolis, to Virginia 
and the District of Columbia, w^ithout having entered the 
port of Baltimore. This being a clear violation of the 
law and of the terms of their contracts, some of the re- 
demptioners sold to these places, by letters, appealed to 
the society for its assistance and for redress. The 
society took energetic action by bringing their cause be- 
fore the United States court, and thus the poor redemp- 
tioners fleeing from a famine stricken country, bound by 
the harsh terms of a legal contract to years of servitude, 
ignorant of the language and the laws of a country then 
foreign to them, without means and in the greatest dis- 
tress, found in the German Society friends, able, willing 
and ready to help, to protect them in their legal rights 
against the abuses of the master of the vessel who 
brought them here and the master who bought them on 
their arrival, by the assistance of the best legal talent of 
its eminent counsellors-at-law. The president of the 
society, Mr. Christian Mayer, a prominent merchant, con- 
sul-general of the Kingdom of Wiirtemberg,. etc., came 
from a renowned family of the old city of Ulm, Germany, 
in 1784 to Baltimore. He was a man of great energy 
and keen intellect, in deep sympathy with the misery and 
suffering of the redemptioners. The secretary, Mr. 



66 History of The 

Lawrence Thomson, was also a man of marked ability, 
equally versed in German and English language, worked 
with no less zeal in the humane cause ; these officers were 
supported by a board of managers, consisting of promi- 
nent citizens. They invoked the aid of the law to punish 
those who committed acts of wanton violence on redemp- 
tioners and caused the sick to be removed at their expense 
to the hospital, but they could not, under the law, prevent 
that these poor people were sold on their arrival pro- 
miscuously, often at public sale, to whosoever would pay 
to the captain their passage money and take them to parts 
unknown. Thereby families were separated the mem- 
bers sold singly to different buyers, without knowing 
what had become of each other. In the Broening case, 
hereinafter stated, the two infant sons were sold to a 
farmer in Queen Anne's county, Maryland, and their 
parents to a farmer in Pennsylvania. No public record 
was kept of these sales, nor of the contracts under which 
they were bound, nor was a duplicate of the contract 
furnished to each of the redemptioners sold. These con- 
tracts were in the Dutch language and the German and 
Swiss redemptioners being ignorant of the Dutch and 
English languages, were completely at the mercy of an 
unscrupulous crafty master, \vho took them to distant 
parts, away from their friends. It was, therefore, of the 
first importance that laws should be passed to remedy 
these evils and a committee consisting of the president 
and the two counsellors of the society w-as elected to 
secure at the next session of the legislature of Maryland 
the enactment of a body of laws and reg^lat;ons for the 
protection of German and Swiss emigrants arriving in 
the State of Maryland. 



German Society of Maryland 67 

In the meantime the society found enongli work on 
their hands under the existing laws. 

The following- letters I have copied from the record 
and minute book of the board of managers of the society, 
I have selected only such letters as by their contents 
throw lig-ht on or give information of the fate of some of 
these redemptioners, and on the manner of the officers in 
dealing with their grievances and rendering them assist- 
ance. 

On May 29, 181 7, the president of the society addressed 
the following letter to one W. Martin Gillet : 

Sir : — The bearer, John Bernet, has applied to the Ger- 
man Society for their aid in a complaint he has against 
you. They have referred him to one of their counsels, who 
is of opinion, that you have no right to the servitude of 
Bernet's children. The officers of the Society wish to in- 
form you of this opinion of their counsel, and to invite you 
to an amicable arrangement of the business if possible by 
reference or otherwise. Bernet is willing to pay whatever 
impartial person may think him indebted to you for his 
children and begs that you will cease sending officers of 
Justice after him. Your reply, written or verbal, if you are 
disposed to settle the difference in a friendly manner, will 
oblige, etc. 

This affair seems to have been amicably arranged, for 
no further complaint is made. 

On July 17, 181 7, he sent the following letter to Mr, 
Solomon Davis, Marble Quarry, Montgomery county: 

Sir : — Yesterday, I received your letter of the 9th inst. 
The man you mention has been to see me about three weeks 



68 History of The 

agfo. He complained plausible enough, not only of ill usage, 
but also of the hardship of being put to work, which he hav- 
ing a rupture, it was physically impossible for him to do. 
He has stated that he would make up the money which 
has been paid for his passage from Europe. I answered 
him that the German Society could not interfere, especially, 
if his employer resided in the District of Columbia, or in 
Virginia, which he could not tell, that he must apply to a 
magistrate and a court &c. I finally advised him to return 
to his service and tender the money he could procure. I 
am glad to find that he at least so far followed my advice 
as to return and I am sorry to learn that he absconded again. 
These poor people, sir, are ignorant of the laws of this 
State and the manners and customs of its inhabitants. At 
least of those of British origin and descent make no dif- 
ference between white servants and black slaves, and when 
they are treated accordingly, they fancy themselves ill 
used, — which to be sure is inconvenient to their masters. 
A servant of mine is a native of the same village, in Suabia, 
from which your man came. I interrogated him on receipt 
of your letter about your man whose name I understood is 
Thies. My servant assured me that he did not see nor 
hear of him since he was with me last month, etc., etc. 
I am respectfully sir, 

Your most obedient servant. 

Christian Mayer, 
President of German Society 
of Maryland. 

Letter to Charles Ridgely, Jr., Esq. : 

July 15th, 1 8 17. 
Sir: — The bearer has been referred to me by two officers 
of the German Society, which has made it my duty as pres- 



German Society of Maryland 69 

ident of this society to take notice of his case. It is to be 
lamented, that the want of understanding the language is 
frequently the occasion of injustice on part of the master 
and more frequently his agents, and of impropriety of con- 
duct on the part of the servant. Where this is the case, 
it has generally been found the interest of the master to 
sufifer the servant to seek another employer, as seldom any 
good has resulted from coercion. I understand that you 
have consented to release this man on condition of his re- 
funding what you paid for his family. It will be impossible 
in the short space of time you have allowed him, to procure 
either the money or security for its payment. Mr. W. J. C. 
Karthaus who has a new settlement in Pennsylvania, has 
offered to take him and his family there at his expense, to 
employ them at the highest wages, and to retain from that 
a portion toward the debt due you, for which he will ac- 
count to the society to be refunded to you. We have no 
doubt in the course of a reasonable time the man will be 
able to discharge his debt toward you and I think you run 
little hazard letting him go on these terms. I have the 
honor, etc., etc. 

Christian Mayer, 
President of the G. S. of Md. 

In this manner the society did its utmost under the cir- 
cumstances to aid and relieve emigrants in distress. IL 
was not incorporated and had no legal standing in the 
courts of law. The law^s as afore-remarked were utterly 
inadequate to give the redemptioners the protection and 
the remedies they were entitled to in a Christian civilized 
country. Tlie legislature was not in session and would 
not meet until December, 1817, when the appeal for a 



70 History of The 

charter of the society and the carefully prepared laws by 
the counsellors, Messrs. Hoffman and Frick, and the 
president for the remedy of the evils complained of could 
be submitted to be enacted. 

It was the constant effort of the society to increase its 
influence, membership and to raise funds to carry on its 
noble work. By a resolution of the board and letters of 
the president. Dr. J. Baer, of Fredericktown, and Dr. 
Schnebly, of Hagerstown, were kindly requested to solicit 
subscriptions among the many German and Swiss and 
descendants of them who were settled in those towns and 
vicinity by publishing the constitution and proceedings of 
the society in the German newspapers then published in 
their respective towns. 

To make the membership more attractive by social 
features, a grand banquet was arranged and held at 
Johann A. Kaminsky's Hotel, on Bank street, on Friday, 
the 26th day of December, 181 7. It was attended by 
most all the prominent Gemian- Americans of the city. 
Thirteen official toasts were on the program and after 
each toast an appropriate popular song. The first toast 
was "To the Land We Live In," the song, "Ubi bene, 
ibi patria." 

It seems "The Star Spangled Banner," which only a 
few years before had been composed in our city, had not 
yet become widely known, for, thereafter, it was gen- 
erally in the regular order at each of their banquets. 

"To the Land of our Ancestors" was the second toast, 
and "To the German Confederation (Bund)" the third; 
fourth, "German Industry and Honesty;" may both be- 
come proverbial in this country. Fifth, "German art and 



German Society of Maryland 71 

invention." Sixth, To the memory of George Washing- 
ton. Seventh, To the memory of Benjamin Frankhn. 
Eiglith, To the memory of Luther, Zwingli and Arclt- 
bishop Dalberg. Nintli, "To the memory of Frcderick 
the Great, not as a conqueror, but as wisest o^ monarchy 
and first servant of the people of his country." Tenth, 
"To the memory of the Muhlenbergs and all German- 
Americans who distinguished themselves in the cause of 
Liberty, Religion and Science." Eleventh, "All emigrants, 
may they never be ungrateful to the country which 
adopted them." 

Twelfth, "To our Sister Societies." 

Thirteenth, "To the Ladies of America, Germany and 
Swiss." 

This closed the official program, but by no means the. 
flood of kindliness, good cheer and enthusiasm which had 
been engendered, and being now released from the 
formalities of the program called forth and toasted to the 
memory of numerous illustrious men with eloquent re- 
marks of their virtues and great services rendered to man- 
kind. The president, Christian Mayer, not losing sight 
of the ulterior object of the banquet, gave as toast, "May 
the legislature of our State be favorable to the objects 
and purpose of our society," and spoke of the adoption of 
the laws for the better j^rotection of emigrants and re- 
demptioners, submitted by the society to the legislature, 
then in session at Annapolis. 

Mr. J. B. von Kapff, the first vice-president, then pro- 
posed a toast, "To the President of the United States ot 
America, James Monroe." Dr. A. J. Schwartze, a re- 
nowned physician of the city and third vice-president, 



y2 History of The 

proposed a toast, "To the German Society of Maryland ;'" 
then toasts were drank to the memories of Herman the 
Cherusker, to General Blucher, Baron De Kalb, William 
Tell, Adelung, Klopstock, Lessing, Herder, Wieland, 
Theodor Koerner, Goethe, Schiller, Mozart, Hayden, 
Handel, the German language, a number of physicians 
and scientists, and after the vice-president. General John 
Strieker, had retired, a toast, "On the Victory of North 
Point, may it always be remembered that a descendant of 
a German was the first to defeat the hostile British demon- 
stration against Baltimore." After the withdrawal of 
President Mayer a toast to him as a philanthropist, etc.. 
was drank. There were thirty-eight toasts as reported in 
the Federal Gazette. 

The banquet was a great success, an enthusiastic affair 
and long remembered in Baltimore. The object of the 
society became thereby more widely known and popular, 
which was of great assistance in obtaining from the legis- 
lature on the third of February, 1818, the following 
charter or act of incorporation by Chapter 100: 

WHEREAS, the arrival of Germans and Switzers from 
Europe, and the numerous settlements made by them in 
various parts of the Union, have induced a nimiber of per- 
sons in this State to associate themselves for the purpose of 
removing or lessening their distresses in a strange land, 
and these persons having applied to the General Assembly 
of Maryland, for an act of incorporation. Therefore : 

Section i. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL 
ASSEMBLY OF AID., That Christian Mayer, John 
Strieker, Augustus J. Schwartz, Bernard J. Von Kapff, 
Henry Schroeder, Justus Hoppe, John Frederick Fries, Con- 



German Society of Maryland 73 

rad Schultz, James Keerl, Augustus Hammer, Frederick 
Leypold, Frederick and E. Amelung, Michael Kimmel, 
William Krebs, Louis Brantz, Philip P. Eckel, Jacob Small, 
Lawrence Thomsen, Louis Mayer, David Hoffman and 
William Frick, the present Officers of the German Society 
of ]\'Iaryland and all persons who are or may hereafter be- 
come members of said Society and their successors, shall 
be and they are hereby created and made one community, 
corporation and body politic, for ever hereafter, by the 
name, style and title of "The German Society of Mary- 
land." 

Sec. 2. AND BE IT ENACTED, that the said corpora- 
tion, and their successors by the name, style and title afore- 
said, shall be capable in law of purchasing-, receiving, hold- 
ing, selling, leasing and conveying, all manner of lands, 
tenements, goods, chattels, rents, annuities, liberties, fran- 
chises or other property, real, personal or mixed ; provided 
always, that the clear annual value or income from the 
property of the said corporation shall not exceed the sum 
of $5,000 exclusive of the monies arising from annual or 
other stated subscriptions or payments. 

Sec. 3. AND BE IT ENACTED, that the said corpora- 
tion and their successors by the name aforesaid, shall be for 
ever hereafter able and capable in law to sue and be sued, 
plead and be impleaded, answer and be answered unto, in 
all or any court of justice, and it shall and may be lawful 
for them to have and use a common seal, and the same to 
break, alter and renew, at pleasure, and generally to do all 
things and acts which may be necessary to carry into effect 
the benevolent designs of said corporation. 

Sec. 4. And be it enacted, that said corporation and their 
successors, shall be capable of making such rules and by- 



74 History of The 

laws as may be necessary for the regulation and govern- 
ment of said corporation, the same not being contrary to 
the laws and constitution of this State, or of the United 
States. 

Two weeks later, on February i6, 1818, the law pre- 
pared by the officers of the society was passed. It was 
entitled : 

An Act Relative to German and Swiss Redemptioners. 

Whereas, it has been found that German and Swiss emi- 
grants, who for the discharge of the debt contracted for 
their passage to this country are often obliged to subject 
themselves to cruel and oppressive imposition by the mas- 
ters of the vessels in which they arrive, and likewise by 
those to whom they become servants, BE IT ENACTED : 

Section i. Providing for the appointment by the gov- 
ernor of a trustworthy person, skilled in the German and 
English languages, as register of all contracts for appren- 
ticeship of German or Swiss emigrants arriving in this 
State. 

Sec. 2. Regulates the manner of making these contracts, 
and none shall be valid, unless the same be drawn by the 
register or approved by him. 

Sec. 4. Provides for the recording of these contracts, or 
indentures, in a court of record. 

Sec. 5. Provides that the master must give every minor 
under the age of twenty-one years at least two months' 
schooling annually during his servitude. 

Sec. 6. No emigrant shall in any case be bound to serve 
longer than four years. 

Sec. 7. That no German or Swiss emigrant arriving 
here shall be detained longer than 30 days on board of the 



German Society of Maryland 75 

vessel after such arrival, and receive during the detention 
on board good and sufficient provisions, without increase in 
the period of their servitude. 

Sec. 8. Makes it the duty of the register to remove on 
shore any sick emigrant or any emigrant having been cruelly 
or ill-treated by the officers of the ship, at the expense of 
the vessel. If no purchaser is found for him within sixty 
days after arrival, the master or owners of the vessel have 
no further lien on such emigrant. 

Sec. 9. That no children shall be answerable for the 
passage money of their parents, dead or alive, nor parents 
for their deceased children, nor a husband for his deceased 
wife, nor a wife for her deceased husband, any pretense of 
custom in contract, promise or agreement made beyond sea, 
to the contrary notwithstanding. 

Sec. 10. That the masters of the vessels arriving, in 
case of the death of any German or Swiss emigrant, within 
ten days after arrival deliver to the register an accurate in- 
ventory of all the property of such emigrant on board of 
such vessel. The register shall then sell such property, pay 
the master the passage-money, provided that if the passen- 
ger died before the expiration of one-half of the voyage no 
passage-money shall be due, and the heirs of the deceased 
shall be entitled to the proceeds, and if after advertisement 
and due search no heirs of the deceased can be found within 
three years after the arrival of the ship, then the proceeds 
to go to the German Society of Maryland. 

By these laws the society received an official recogni- 
tion. It possessed talent, influence and money, and now 
it had also the powerful arm of the laiw to assist it in it- 
noble efforts in behalf of the oppressed. 



76 History of The 

It was now the care of the society to see that these ex- 
cellent laws were duly carried out. This depended on 
the character and ability of the person the governor would 
appoint as register. The register was to be skilled in the 
German and English language; he was to prepare or 
approve of all contracts of apprenticeship and had the 
most extensive authority and it was his duty to see that 
all the provisions of the law were complied with. 

On September lo, 1818, a meeting of the officers of 
the society was held and Lawrence Thomsen, secretary, 
was unanimously recommended to the governor as a suit- 
able person for the office as register of German and Swiss 
emigrants, and that he be solicited by the president of the 
society to appoint Mr. Thomsen to that office. 

Mr. Thomsen was appointed. He proved to be a faith- 
ful and very efficient officer and held the office until his 
death on the 20th of April, 1819. His early demise was 
lamented by the society and the community in general, as 
the loss of a man who, by his talents, his amiable char- 
acter and general usefulness, had secured to himself in 
private and public life the highest esteem. 

On December 14, 1818, the president referred to Con- 
rad Schultz and Samuel Keerl, managers, the case of 
apparent hardship between William Jacob Myers, tobac- 
conist, and a servant girl of his whom he had agreed to 
set free, but on condition to pay him a sum of money 
which is represented not to be in due proportion to what 
he paid for her time. The matter was adjusted by these 
gentlemen and the girl was set free. Different was the 
ending for the master of the redemptioner. 



German Society of Maryland 'jy 



JOHANN BODENWERBER. 

In January, 1819, a German, named Johann Boden- 
werber, appealed to the society for protection. He was a 
servant of one Henry Freeburger, who had treated him 
with the utmost crueky and inflicted such injuries on him 
that he was for a long time laid up in the hospital under 
medical treatment. The president first tried to obtain a 
release of Bodenwerber from his bondage, and wrote the 
following letter to Freeburger: 

"Sir: — If as a small atonement for the barbarous treat- 
ment, which Johannes Bodenwerber experienced from you, 
you will give up his indentures, the officers of the German 
Society will prevail on the Magistrate who issued a peace 
warrant against you, to have the prosecution withdrawn. 
Should you unexpectedly not consent to this lenient meas- 
ure, you may depend upon the Society's utmost endeavors 
to bring you to deserved shame and punishment. I have 
before me a physician's certificate which fully justifies my 
using this language to you. 
(Signed) Christian Mayer, 

President of German Society of Maryland." 

It is gratifying to us that Henry Freeburger in his 
cupidity and hardness of heart did not accept this proposi- 
tion, for he was promptly indicted by the grand jury and 
tried in the Criminal Court of Baltimore city and found 
guilty and sentenced. 



78 History of The 

Johann Bodenwerber, however, Avas released from h's 
bondage, became a free man again and married his sweet- 
heart. The papers of Bodenwerber and of his sweet- 
heart, that is, their pass-ports and certificates of their 
good moral conduct from different pubhc authorities of 
tlieir native country, which had been in tlie custody of 
the German Society, were dehvered to them, together with 
a sum of money and the good Avishes of the society. The 
president speaks of Bodenwerber as a very worthy man 
who deserved a better fate. 

On Saturday, the 26th day of December, 181 8, the 
society celebrated the first anniversary of its re-organi- 
zation by a grand dinner at Williamson's Hotel, com- 
mencing at four o'clock p. m. The customary thirteen 
official toasts were drank, the United States of America 
heading the list. Many voluntary toasts followed and a 
merry time. Over $500 had been given to needy emi- 
grants in the past year. 

In the early days of the month of January, i8ig, 
arrived in our port the Swedish ship "Prima," Cap- 
tain Mo'xwold, after a long, perilous, tempestuous 
voyage from Bergen, Norway, with upward 250 German 
and Swiss emigrants, mostly redemptioners, in the great- 
est distress. These emigrants must have been shipwrecked 
or from other cause, in distress have found refuge 
in that far northern city of Bergen, for the German So- 
ciety passed at a meeting resolutions of profuse thanks to 
the magistrate of the city of Bergen and other public 
functionaries of his majesty, the King of Sweden, and to 
A. Gruning, Esq., consul for the Hanseatic cities at Chris- 
tiania for the extraordinary generosity to these emigrants 



German Society of Maryland 79 

during their stay in Norway, assuring them that the offi- 
cers and all the members of the society who have heard 
the Jiistory of these unfortunate strangers are animated 
by the liveliest sentiments of gratitude for the unex- 
ampled humanity and liberality extended towards these 
emigrants. These resolutions were duly transmitted by 
the president and secretary of the society. On the arrival 
of the ship here the captain did not have the money to pay 
the foreign tonnage tax required by our laws, and the 
poor passengers were not allowed to land and in their 
distress had to remain on board the ship. An appeal for 
aid was made to the German Society, which thereupon 
directed its officers to make a sufficient deposit with the 
collector of the port to permit the landing of the pas- 
sengers and their baggage. 

President Mayer sent the following letter : 

The Honorable William A. Crawford, 

Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, 
Washington, D. C. 
Sir: The Swedish ship "Prima" Capt. Moxwold arrived 
here some days ago from Norway with upward 250 Ger- 
man emigrants in great distress. The collector of this dis- 
trict could not admit this ship to an entry, unless the for- 
eign tonnage be paid or secured, as he is not yet officially 
informed of the treaty with Sweden recently ratified. To 
alleviate the distress of the redemptioners on board the 
"Prima," I have this day made the requisite deposit, which 
the master of the sliip had not the means to do, and the 
ship is entered and leave given to land the passengers and 
their baggage. I have now to request, that you, sir, will be 
pleased to give direction to the collector respecting the ton- 



8o History of The 

nage this Swedish ship is chargeable with, that he may 
settle with me for the deposit made. 

I have the honor to be most respectfully, sir, 

Your most obedient servant, 
Chr. Mayer, 
President of the Incorporated German Society 
of Maryland. 

The society granted a loan to Joseph Fiedler, one of 
the redemptioners of the "Prima," of fifty dollars for one 
year, and gifts of smaller sums to others, but still greater 
trouble came with this ship to the society, which brought 
discord among its officers with the sequence of the resig- 
nation of its able counsellors-at-law and eventually the 
resignation of its zealous worthy president. It w^as the 
Case of the "Breiining Boys." 

Among the redemptioners of the ship "Prima" was the 
Breuning family, consisting of husband and wife with 
their two infant sons, Christian and Adam. Mr. Law- 
rence Thomsen, the State Register of Redemptioners, 
went on board to draw and prepare all contracts for ap- 
prenticeship as prescribed by law for emigrants who had 
come under the redemptioner system and found masters 
willing to take them in service. The ship was crowded 
and the register was engaged in making out and signing 
apprenticeship contracts in one part of the ship, when a 
Mr. W. Denny, a farmer from Queen Anne county, see- 
ing the Breuning boys, wqs so pleased with their appear- 
ance that he offered the captain of the ship a liberal sum 
of money to buy them as redemptioners. The captain 
accepted tlie money, and the farmer, without having them 
bound and indentured by Mr. Thomsen and without the 



German Society of Maryland 8i 

parents understanding what was going on with their 
children, placed the boys in his boat, which was laying 
alongside of the ship, and shoved off. The mother seeing 
her only children thus carried away, cried out and 
lamented, crazed with grief and anguish. Mr. Thomsen 
called to Mr. Denny and ordered him to bring back the 
boys. He would return him the money he paid, but 
neither the order of this officer nor the piteous cries and 
lamentations of the mother and father of the boys made 
an impression on the fanner. He had a good bargain in 
the service of these boys until they were respectively 
twenty-two years of age, with no record when that time 
would come, and he sailed with them away across the 
Chesapeake Bay to Queen Anne county. It was a clear 
case of kidnapping. To make matters still worse the 
bereaved and grief-stricken parents were afterwards sold 
to a farmer in Pennsylvania, where they bitterly bewailed 
the loss of their children. All this was reported by Mr, 
Thomsen to the president of the society and aroused his 
sympathy and abhorrence. He was determined to act at 
once with the greatest energy in behalf of these unfortu- 
nate children and their parents. The only way to obtam 
the freedom of these lads from the custody of Mr. Denny 
was by a proceeding of obtaining a writ of "habeas cor- 
pus," to be issued by the circuit court of Queen Anne's 
county, commanding Mr. Denny to bring the lads into 
court for adjudication. The mattec was therefore to be 
referred to the counsellors of the society for action. The 
society had some time prior received a complaint from a 
Grerman gardener named Stoffel, who was brought to this 
country in the ship "Superb," and under a contract en- 



82 History of The 

tered into in Holland, held in servitude by John Carrere, 
Esq., of this city, the owner of the ship "Superb." Stoffel 
had just grievances against Mr. Carrere, and these were 
referred to the counsellors to seek redress for him by law. 
The counsellors had sent to the society an opinion un- 
favorable to the legal rights of Stoffel in his just com- 
plaints. The president's son, Charles F. Mayer, Esq., a 
member of the bar, who became a leading lawyer of the 
State, to whom this opinion was submitted, gave a dia- 
metrical different opinion of the law, and was in favor of 
taking legal steps in behalf of Stoffel. The president 
agreed with his son's views, and was not in harmony with 
the lawyers of the society. He, therefore, sent them the 
following letter : 

February ist, 1819. 
David Hoffman and William Frick, Esq. 

Gentlemen : — I have yesterday received the opinion you 
favored me with, and shall consequently in my official ca- 
pacity desist from countenancing the gardener Stoffel's 
complaint against W. Carren. But permit me, gentlemen, 
to observe, that although it is surely not illegal in Holland 
for one man to become gardener for another for three years 
without wages, yet that species of domestic servitude, which 
is nothing but a temporary slavery, which makes one man 
the property of another, and divests him of all civic rights, 
is utterly unknown to the laws and customs of the Nether- 
lands, — there is even no feudal serf or adscriptus glebae in 
that country. If, therefore, Stoffel's contract is to be ex- 
ecuted here as it would be interpreted in Holland, he is not 
Mr. Carren's indented servant (Leibeigener), but his hired 
domestic upon wages advanced. 



German Society of Maryland ^3 

Give me leave to state a simile: Suppose Stoffel had 
agreed with Captain Weems to be transported to the north- 
w^est coast of America, to be there maintained in the usual 
manner, could he have no right to complain if he were fed 
on rotten whale and putrid fish oil? With all due deference, 
I crave your permission to submit the opinion of my son on 
this case. 

I am at the same time under the necessity of calling your 
attention to another matter. Last week a misunderstand- 
ing took place between a passenger on board the ship 
"Prima," now in this port, and an inhabitant of Queen 
Anne's county, whose name Mr. Thomsen will inform you 
of, about the terms of servitude or apprenticeship of the 
former's two infant sons. Mr. Thomsen not being able to 
accommodate the difference, requested the man from 
Queen Anne's to return the two lads on board to the cap- 
tain, but instead of doing so, the man carried off the boys 
in his boat, without having them bound. I beg, gentlemen, 
you will by addressing the chief judge of the district in 
which Queen Anne is situated or by any other means you 
may deem advisable, endeavor to redress this wrong and 
punish the offender. 

I have the honor to be, etc.. 

Christian Mayer, 
Pres. of G. S. of Md. 

The president, however, did not wait for the attorneys 
to act, not even for a reply to his letter. He seems to 
have lost confidence in them, and on the 5th of February, 
1819, sent them the following rather discourteous letter: 

"Wm. Frick and David Hoffman, Esqs. 

Sirs : — Before the receipt of your respected letter of yes- 
terday it had been suggested to me to enclose to a store- 



84 History of The 

keeper at Centreville, with whom Mr. Thomsen has an open 
account, a petition to the judge of that district for a habeas 
corpus, accompanied by a deposition of Mr. Thomsen, stat- 
ing the facts of the case and a request to his correspondent 
to employ counsel at the expense of the German Society. 
I am glad, gentlemen, that by this mode of proceeding I am 
enabled to spare you from perhaps unnecessary trouble." 

By the dates of these letters it appears that the attor- 
neys had answered his letter within three days, but he had 
without waiting for a reply engaged another attorney, 
and taken this case out of their hands. The attorneys 
could not act otherwise than tender their resignation to 
the society. The resignation of Mr. Frick was accepted 
at the meeting of March the ist, and Charles F. Mayer, 
the son of the president, elected in his place. 

David Hoffman, Esq., at the next meeting of the ofB- 
cers also resigned as counsellor, and Peter HofYman 
Cruse, Esq., was elected in his stead. A fee of one hun- 
dred dollars for each of the late counsellors for their 
services was granted, but not accepted by the counsellors. 
A petition for a w^rit of habeas corpus for the Breuning 
boys was filed in the court for Queen Anne county. 
President Mayer wTote a personal letter to the Honorable 
R. Earle, chief judge of the county, on behalf of the 
Breuning boys. The judge answ^ered, stating that he 
knew Mr. Denny personally as a man of good character 
and standing, who did not intend to violate the law. The 
president called a special meeting of the board, and the 
judge was informed that the society insisted upon the 
boys being released from the unlawful custody of Mr. 
Denny. On the hearing of the return of the writ, the 



German Society of Maryland 85 

boys were set free. Their parents, being in bondage as 
redemptioners, could not take proper care of them and 
the society by the Register, Mr. L. Thomsen and under 
the authority of the Orphans' Court had them regularly 
bound as apprentices to learn farming. The case of the 
gardener, Stoffel, was also taken up again by the new 
counsellors, but the record does not disclose with what 
success. On March 2, 18 19, the president sent the fol- 
lowing letter to Captain Jacob Maxwold : 

Commander of the Norwegian Ship "Prima." 

Sir : — By a meeting of the officers of the German Society 
of Maryland, held yesterday, I am desired to present to you 
the thanks of the board on behalf of the society for the 
humanity and courtesy with which you have, during a pro- 
tracted voyage, conducted yourself toward the unfortunate 
emigrants, who, by the uncommon generosity of the govern- 
ment of your country, have been after so many perils and 
privations which these poor people had encountered since 
they had left their native country, the kindness with which 
you have uniformly treated them was particularly consol- 
ing, etc., etc., etc. 

Chr. Mayer, 
President of German Society of Maryland. 

On the 15th of March, 1819, the president wrote the 
following letter, which certainly was not within the scope 
of his authority as the president of a society which only 
had for its object the protection of the emigrant and not 
of the ship owners. It is addressed to the German immi- 
grants yet remaining on board of the Dutch ship "Vrouvv 
Elizabeth" : 



86 History of The 

"Captain Bredero has applied to the Gennan Society of 
Maryland, and represented that you refuse to hire your- 
selves on reasonable condition for the payment of your 
passage money. As Captain Bredero conscientiously per- 
formed his part of the contract, and, up to the present time 
as we are informed by everybody, treated you very kindly, 
your refusal is unjust, unlawful and ungrateful. The Ger- 
man Society makes it its duty to assist your countrymen 
when they are in need, and to protect them as far as it is 
able; but it will also not suffer any injustice to be done by 
emigrants, and by advice and act induce them to fulfil their 
obligations. I declare, therefore, to you, that Captain Bre- 
dero has a lawful right to have you committed to prison, to 
remain there on meagre fare, until your debt is paid, if 
you do not consent to hire for a reasonable time — that is 
not more than four years, for the payment thereof. The 
captain can exercise this right, after the expiration of thirty 
days of your arrival, and the German Society will assist 
him in this. Please conform to this, and it will please us. 
You are hereby warned of the consequences. 

(Signed) Chr. Mayer, 

President, etc." 

On the nth of May, 1819, the president gave to Cap- 
tain Bredero a certificate that he treated his passengers 
with kindness and humanity. 

On the 17th of April, 1819, Mr. Lawrence Thomsen, 
the able secretary of the society and State Register of 
German and Swiss Immigrants, departed this life. The 
society in meeting assembled unanimously recommended 
Lewis Mayer to the governor and council of Maryland 
as a suitable person to be appointed for the vacant oflfice 



German Society of Maryland 87 

of Register for German and Swiss Immigrants arriving 
at the port of Baltimore. Lewis Mayer thereupon was 
appointed Register by the governor and council. Lewis 
Mayer remained State Register and secretary of the board 
of managers of the society until June, 1823, v/hen in con- 
sequence of his removal from the State of Maryland, he 
lesigned both offices, and, on recommendation of the 
society, Henry G. Jacobson was appointed his successor. 
Li the summer of 1819 the yellow fever was in the city, 
especially at Fell's Point. The inhabitants fled into the 
country, where they lived in tents. There was much suf- 
fering among the poor and soup-houses were established. 
]n Germany they had good crops, prosperity had returned 
and for many years there was a diminished emigration 
from that country to America. The society gave more 
attention to the relief of the poor of the city, natives of 
Germany and Swiss and descendants of Germans and 
Swiss. 

By a resolution passed January 5, 181 9, the board re- 
solved itself into committees to procure additional mem- 
bers and solicit subscriptions in the following order of 
arrangement : 

First Week : Conrad Schultz, Samuel Keerl. 
Second Week : Justus Hoppe, John F. Friese. 
Third Week : William Krebs, Lawrence Thomsen. 
Fourth Week : Jacob Small, Lewis Brantz. 
Fifth Week: August Hammer, Frederick Waesche. 
Sixth Week: Michael Kimmel, F. L. E. Amelung. 
Seventh Week: Frederick Leypold, Philip Eckel. 
Eighth Week: Wm. Frick, Lewis Mayer. 
Ninth Week: Henry Schroeder, D. Hoffman. 



88 History of The 

At the same meeting a by-law was adopted that, within 
one week after the next anniversary meeting of the so- 
ciety and every year thereafter on the same day, the presi- 
dent, vice-president and board of managers shall elect by 
ballot coimsellors and physicians to the society for the 
year ensuing. A vote of thanks was passed for Conrad 
Schulz, the Pnissian Consul, for his benevolent exertions 
to alleviate the sufferings of the unfortunate emigrants 
lately arrived here in the ship "Prima," from Norway. 
A redemptioner named Joseph Scliwartzkopf, who came 
with the ship "Juffrow Johanna" in January, 1817, and 
sold tO' a master in Annapolis without having any writing 
to show his terms of servitude, there being at the time no 
1 egistration of redemptioners, appealed to the society for 
redress. The president sent sworn depositions to Annap- 
olis, showing that Joseph Schwartzkopf arrived here and 
was sold in servitude in the early month of 181 7. 

We no'w come to a blank leaf in the record book of the 
proceedings of the officers of the society. There is no 
entry during the period from September 25, 1819, to 
December 26, 1821, when, at the anniversary meeting of 
the society, held at Williamson's Hotel, Justus Hoppe, a 
prominent merchant, was chosen president and B. J. von 
Kapff, Dr. A. J. Schwarz, Henry Schroeder and General 
John Strieker, vice-presidents. William Frick appears 
as a member of the board of managers. The record book 
of the proceedings of the society was burnt in the great 
fire of 1904. The Federal Gazette of December 21 to 2^^, 
1820, contains a notice that the anniversary meeting of 
the society and election of officers would be held at Mrs. 
Wintklos' Hotel, on Bank street, on Tuesday, December 



German Society of Maryland 89 

26, 1820, at 12 M. Brantz Mayer in his "Memoir and 
Genealogy of the family oi Mayer from the city of Ulni 
in Maryland," page 41, says his father, Christian Mayer, 
for reasons of other duties, in 1821 declined a re-election. 
Charles F. Mayer, Esq., the counsellor, resigned in 1822, 
and William Frick and David Hoffman, Esqs., were again 
elected as counsellors of the society, offices they had re- 
signed in 1 819 on account of the Breuning boys' case. 
The former held this position until 1832 and Mr. Hoff- 
man until 1836, when he removed from the city to Phila- 
delphia. Both were prominent in public affairs. Wil- 
liam Frick, Esq., as author of legal books, orator and 
judge, was a son of Peter Frick, who, as early as 1773, 
was a leading member of the German Lutheran Zion 
Church and always took an active part in public affairs for 
the welfare of Baltimore Town, and in 1796, when Balti- 
more was raised to the dignity of a city, was a member of 
the first city council and se*-ved for several years as the 
president of the First Branch. His son, William Frick, 
Esq., was also a life-long worshiper and regular attendant 
of said Zion Church. In 1836 William Frick was ap- 
pointed by President Jackson collector of this port and 
retained the position under President Van Buren. He 
subsequently represented the city as State senator. In 
June, 1848, he was appointed by Governor Thomas chief 
judge of the then Baltimore county. As chief judge of 
that court he became a member of the court of appeals of 
the State of Maryland until the adoption of the new con- 
stitution in 1 85 1, when he was elected by the people as 
the first judge of the Superior Court of Baltimore City. 
He held that position until his death on the 25th of July, 



90 History of The 

1855. He remained a life-long member of the German 
Society. 

David Hoffman, Esq., LL. D., was born in Baltimore 
Town in 1784 of German parents. He was a leading 
member of the early bar in Baltimore; became professor 
of law in the University of Maryland from 181 7 to 1836, 
is the author of "A Course of Legal Studies," of "Legal 
Outlines." standard works for many years, and published 
other books of merit. 

Peter Hoffman Cruse, Esq., was a man of distinguished 
talents and an accomplished scholar. He was for a num- 
ber of years the editor of the "Bialtimore American," and 
later of "The Patriot." 

Justus Hoppe was re-elected and remained president of 
the society until the year 1833. With him Vv^ere Jacob 
Small, a member of the board of managers from 1819 to 
1829, and in 1826 and 1827 first vice-president. In 1826 
Jacob Small (Schmal) was elected mayor of the city of 
Baltimore. He resigned the office in 1829. General 
John Strieker, the fourth vice-president, died on the 23rd 
day of June. 1825, in his sixty-seventh year of age. His 
remains were interred with great military honors. At 
the time of his death he was the president of the Bank of 
Baltimore. He was one of the most amiable and best of 
men. 

The record book of the society being destroyed, we 
have no detail of its activity in those years, but the fol- 
lowing incident taken from a book in the library of the 
late Rev. Edward Huber may be considered as one of 
frequent acts of like nature. S. V. R., a Swiss nobleman, 



German Society op Maryland 91 

published in Aaran, 1827, a book under the title of "My 
Visit to America in the Summer of 1824." 

He shipped from Havre on the German emigrant ves- 
sel "Hyperion" for Baltimore. On page 53 he writes: 
The vessel arrived at Baltimore on the 14th of July, 1824, 
and landed the emigrants, who immediately made ar- 
rangements to depart for the western territories of the 
United States, mostly in small caravans of eight to ten 
persons. Some were already entirely divested of money. 
They applied to a highly esteemed society in Baltimore 
and the two poorest families, consisting of eleven persons, 
received a horse and forty piaster. They, like the 
majority of such emigrants, wandered to the shores of 
the Ohio river. 

The society held its yearly meetings and election of 
officers (fully reported in the appendix) regularly in the 
last week of each year at Beltzhoover's Hotel, southea:-t 
corner of Baltimore and Hanover streets. It was also 
called "Indian Queen" Hotel, and celebrated in its days 
Beltzhoover in 1832 removed to the "Fountain Hotel." 

After the election of officers and transaction of busi- 
ness, a banquet followed with the usual toasts and 
speeches. It is to be noticed that these meetings and 
banquets were held in daytime and not in the evening, or 
night, as is the custom of the present time. In 1832 the 
society received from the lady patronesses of a concert 
the sum of one hundred dollars, with the request that the 
same be immediately distributed among Germans in dis- 
tress in the city. 

No entry is found in the record book of the officers of 
the society during and after the presidency of Justus 



92 History of The 

Hoppe nor thereafter relating to a particular case of 
cruelty or wrong to a redemptioner requiring the assist- 
ance or intervention of the society. The strict enforce- 
ment of the registration and apprenticeship laws enacted 
by the State at the instance of the society and applied 
under the supervision of the officers of the society by the 
State Register, who was at the same time the secretary 
of the officers, as well as public opinion which had set 
against the redemptioner system, had a wholesome influ- 
ence. The newspapers of the ensuing years do not con- 
tain any more advertisements for "the sale, nor offering 
rewards for the capture of runaway redemptioners." 
There were gradually less redemptioners coming. In 
1830 Henry G. Jacobson, the State Register, resigned, 
and Charles Starke was recommended by the officers of 
the society and appointed by the governor as the suc- 
cessor in office. Starke resigned in 1834 and Justus 
Hoppe recommended tO' the governor as the successor. 

The society placed certain sums of money in the hands 
of the president to be disposed at his discretion to the aid 
of destitute German and Swiss immigrants and accoimt- 
ed for to the treasurer. Aside of the counsellors- 
at-law, it always had two competent salaried physicians 
to attend poor sick immigrants. 

On the 26th of December, 1832, Charles W. Karthaus 
was elected president. Mr. Karthaus as vice-president 
had been very active to increase the membership and fund 
of the society. At the meeting held on the ninth day of 
February, 1833, he appointed from among the officers 
committees to solicit subscriptions from the members re- 



German Society of Maryland 93 

siding in the respective districts, assigned to them as 
follows : 

John P. Stroble, 1 

G. A. von Spreckelson, [• ist and 2nd ward. 

J. J. Cohen. J 

C. W. Karthaus, 1 

Chas. Diffenderfer, !-3rd and 4th ward. 

J. J. Hoogewerff. J 

Edward Kurtz, ^ 

Dr. F. E. Hintze, 1 5th and 6th ward. 

F. W. Brune. J 

Chas. G. Boehm, 1 

F. L. Brauns, 1 7th and 8th ward. 

Samuel Keerl. 

Frederick Focke, 1 

Chas. Starcke, ^9th and loth ward. 

A. Schumacher. J 

William Hilberg, 1 

Charles Fischer. Mith and 12th ward. 

C. G. Peters, J 

The regular dues of the members of the society were 
at that time three dollars a year. The records of pro- 
ceedings of the society before i860 being destroyed as 
aforesaid, we can by the membership of later years esti- 
mate the average number of members of the preceding 
years, as not more than one hundred and fifty to two 
hundred. Some members contributed liberall_v more than 
their regular dues (see list in annual reports) and others 
by the payment of a large sum became life members. 
After the payment of the salaries of the physicians, the 
medicines, the agent who visited the arriving immigrant 



94 History of The 

vessel and other necessary expenses, there was but a small 
sum left to meet the demand of those deserving- aid in 
pecuniary distress. We read from tlie record book of 
the officers (which is preserved) of the constant efforts 
of the officers of the society, who were men of high stand- 
ing in the community, assuming the arduous duty of per- 
sonally soliciting subscriptions for their noble charity. 
We may assume that by their unselfish devotion they 
gained the sympathy and admiration of their fellow citi- 
zens in their work, and the legislature of the State passed 
a law which relieved the society, by assisting and giving 
it more ample pecuniary means. In the session of 1832 
Charles F. Mayer, Esq., the counsellor of the society, was 
a member of the legislature. He introduced a law 
whereof his brother, Brantz Mayer, the eminent author 
and lawyer in his Memoir and Genealogy of the Mayer 
family (p. 41) writes: 

"From its (the German Society) beginning to this day, 
the Society has been one of the most effective institutions 
in America, designed to aid foreigners ; I drew the original 
law under which it collected 'passenger money' and enabled 
it to help so many immigrants." 

This law, passed the 22nd of December, 1832, by the 
Legislature, is now incorporated in our new "City Char- 
ter," adopted April 25, 1898 (p. 208, sections 519 to 
531), under the heading of "I mini grants." 

It provides : That every master or commander of any 
vessel arriving from a foreign country or from any other 
of the United States who shall enter said vessel at the cus- 




ALBERT SCHUMACHER 



i 



German Society of Maryland 95 

tom-house in the city of Baltimore, shall, within twenty- 
four hours after such entry, make a report in writing on 
oath to the mayor of said city of the name, age and occu- 
pation of every alien passenger of his vessel, or forfeit the 
sum of twenty dollars for every such passenger neglected 
or omitted to be reported. 

That the owner or consignee of any such vessel shall 
give a bond to the State of Maryland in the penalty of three 
hundred dollars for each passenger so reported, conditioned 
to indemnity and save harmless each and every city, town 
and county in this State, from any cost which they respec- 
tively shall incur, for the relief and support of the person 
named in the bond, within five years from the date of the 
bond, and also to refund, etc., any charge or expense such 
city, etc., may necessarily incur for the support or medical 
care of such persons, if received into any almshouse or hos- 
pital or any other institution under their care. Prescribing 
a fine of twenty dollars for each passenger not bonded as 
aforesaid, unless the owner or consignee of any such vessel 
within three days after the landing of such passenger, shall 
pay to the City Register the sum of one dollar and fifty cents 
for each and every passenger aforesaid, the receipt whereof 
shall be deemed a full and sufficient discharge from the re- 
quirement of giving such bond. The money so collected 
to go three-fifths thereof to the trustees for the poor of 
Baltimore City for the purpose of supporting foreign paup- 
ers of the said city, and the other two-fifths shall be paid 
to the Hibernian Society of Baltimore and the German So- 
ciety of Maryland. 

The law was originally passed as afore-stated, which 
would be construed that each, the Hibernian and German 
Societies, be equally entitled to the two-fifths of the com- 



96 History of The 

mutation money, which would not be fair as great many- 
more German than Irish immigrants arrived and Hved 
in Baltimore and the German Society thereby carried a 
heavier burden than the Hibernian. 

The president of the German Society thereupon mailed 
the following letter : 

Baltimore, March 6th, 1833. 
Charles F. Mayer, Esq., 
Annapolis. 
Dear Sir : — Your esteemed favor of the 4th inst. is at hand, 
and this morning I received a copy of the Bill respecting 
emigrants; but I should like, if you think it can be done, to 
fix a certain amount on German passengers to be paid over 
by the Mayor and City Council to the German Society, so 
as to get a respectable fund and you may be assured that 
the Society will by such law become more numerous and 
ere long, one that will be able to do some good to poor Ger- 
mans arriving. I think that an alteration would be well to 
be made if it can be done, as it regards children instead 
of five to say ten years in the 2nd section 4th line. I leave 
this, however, to your better judgment, so soon as the law 
has passed, you will please to send a copy that we may have 
it printed in German, English and French, and send it to the 
different ports, where Germans arrive from. 
I remain your obdt. servant, 

Chas. W. Karthaus, 

By supplemental act, passed by the legislature, 1833. 
Chapter 177, the mayor and city council were directed ^o 
pay the two-fifths of the passengers commutation money 
to the German Society and Hibernian Society, re 



German Society of Maryland 97 

spectively, in proportion of the amounts received from 
German and Swiss and from Irish passengers. So that 
thereafter the German Society received from the city the 
sum of sixty cents from the commutation money paid by 
every German and Swiss immigrant arriving in the city 
of Baltimore. The owners of the emigrant vessels col- 
lecting the money as a part of the passage money before 
the departure from the old country and paid it to the city 
on the arrival of the vessel. By this law the society was 
relieved of its financial stress and enabled with far gTeater 
efficiency to continue its good work. The city collected 
one dollar and fifty cents from each emigrant arriving at 
this port, ninety cents whereof went to the city poor-house 
and sixty cents to the respective national societies repre- 
senting the countries the emigrants came from. Accord- 
ing to the books of the German Society^ the German emi- 
grants who came to Baltimore and paid sixty cents each, 
less two per cent, commission to the city register for col- 
lection as provided by law, were : 

From 1833 — 1840 441584 persons 

From 1841 — 1850 50,660 persons 

From 1850 — 1860 73i722 persons 

From i860 — 1869 49,513 persons 

From 1869 — 1876 53-375 persons 



Total German emigrants to Bal- 
timore who paid commutation 
money from 1833 to 1876. .. .272,218 persons 

In 1876 the Supreme Court of the United States de- 
clared that, under the late immigration law passed by 



98 History of The 

Congress, no State had a rig-ht to collect any tax, assess- 
ment, etc., from passengers arriving at its port, and the 
owners of the vessels refused to pay any further. 

The society receiving the com'mutation money enlarged 
its activity by authorizing each of the twelve managers 
to give assistance by printed orders furnished them or 
the treasurer of the society. It also contributed regularly 
to the eastern dispensary of the city. In 1832 Alber*^ 
Schumacher appears as one of the managers and remained 
cdi active officer until his death in 1871. He was at first 
one of the collectors of contributions for the ninth and 
tenth wards. In the 3^ear 1825 the ever faithful Ben- 
jamin J. Cohen was elected treasurer and held that re- 
sponsible position by annual re-election until his death in 
the year 1845, when his worthy son, Israel Cohen, was 
elected his successor in office and retained by annual re- 
election until his sudden death in June, 1875 — ^^^7 years, 
twenty thereof by the father and thiirty years by the 
son, were the finances of the society entrusted in the 
custody, care and fidelity of Benjamin Cohen and his 
son, Israel Cohen. The records show their painstaking 
care and efficiency. Their annual reports are full and 
lucid in detail, with sound advice as to management and 
investment of the funds of the society, with soHcitous 
care for the poor beneficiaries, so that not a dollar appears 
to have been misplaced or lost during their remarkably 
long years of gratuitous service in their important office 
of trust and responsibility. Their noble and steadfast 
devotion to charity is so well expressed by Israel Cohci-; 
in his thirty-first and last report as treasurer on January 
2, 1875, "i the following words: 



German Society of Maryland 99 

"The policy inaugurated some years since of adding to 
our permanent fund as opportunity ofifered (without at the 
same time denying relief to the sufifering) has horn its good 
fruits and whilst we can report no increase of our perma- 
nent fund, still we have met every call upon us, and are 
enabled to present our condition as last reported, prepared 
and seeking to perform our part fully and efficiently." 

In special meeting held June 4, 1875, the ofificers of the 
society deplored the loss of their valued friend and effi- 
cient officer (Israel Cohen) who discharged the duties of 
his office with such great fidelity and satisfaction, etc., 
and caused appropriate resolutions to be published in the 
daily papers and entered on the records of the society. 

In July, 1834, the officers were informed that gross 
impositions were practiced upon German and Swiss immi- 
grants arriving in the city of Baltimore. On motion of 
Mr. Salomon Etting, it was resolved that circulars in Ger- 
man and English language be printed to be handed to the 
captains and consignees of every vessel arriving in Balti- 
more with German and Swiss immigrants; that a com- 
mittee of the society consisting of W. C. Karthaus, John 
P. Strobel and Charles G. Boehm may be applied to for 
niformation and redress. 

Many immigrants arriving here in those years from 
the interior of Germany under very erroneous informa- 
tion and wrong impressions of the condition of this coun- 
try and thereby on their arrival here were utterly dis- 
appointed, low-spirited and often dispairing of their 
future. The society, therefore, adopted an address, pre- 
pared by Mr. F. L. Brauns, to those in Germany who 
mtended to emigrate to this country, containing full and 



loo History of The 

correct information of its condition and sound advice as 
to their requirements on their long journey across the 
Atlantic and their arrival and settlement here; also warn- 
ing those not fit or too infirm, not to come, and of the 
character and object of the society. It was signed by the 
officers of the society and with the approbation of the 
foreign consuls, members of the society. 

By a resolution passed October 3rd, 1834, it was 
ordered that 3,000 copies of the address be forwarded 
and distributed in tlie different principalities in Germany 
from whence most of the emigrants came. 

Messrs. F. W. Brune, F. L. Brauns, A. Schumacher, 
Dr. F. E. B. Hintze, Fredk. Focke, Charles W. Spilker, 
John P. Stroble, Mathias Benzinger, Samuel Keerl and 
Salotmon Etting were especially active officers and mana- 
gers of those years. Charles F. Mayer and F. W. Brune, 
Jr., were the counsellors. 



German Society of Maryland ioi 



CONVICTS. 

Baltimore, July 1st, 1837. 

At the meeting of the officers of the society the presi- 
dent having communicated to the meeting intelHgence he 
received from the German newspapers piibHshed in Phila- 
delphia of a number of convicts being on their way to the 
United States destined to New Yiork or Baltimore, and 
transported to this country under the direction of public 
authorities in Germany. It was resolved that the presi- 
dent be instructed to communicate this information to the 
mayor of the city of Baltimore, accompanied with a 
translated extract from the newspaper and suggest to the 
mayor the propriety of such interposition as the laws may 
allow to prevent the landing of such convicts in Balti- 
more or to send them back to Germany, and in the ab- 
sence of all legal authority for such objects, to recommend 
to the mayor the expediency of having the attention of 
the State or general government called to such evils, with 
a view to appropriate enactments, and further that the 
president be authorized to proffer pecuniary aid from this 
society in conjunction with means from the corporate 
authorities of Baltimore for returning the convicts to 
Germany, and particularly that the president state to the 
mayor that the society will through a committee of their 
body visit the vessels arriving with passengers in con- 
junction with any committee of the city council to inquire 
into the character of the passengers and when it is ascer- 
tained that vagrants or convicts be on board that the 
society will co-operate with the city authorities in all 



102 History of The 

necessary measures for the returning of such passengers 
to Germany. Resolved, that a committee of three be ap- 
pointed to wait on the mayor and confer with him upon 
the subject of the aforegoing resolution. Solomon Er- 
ting, John P. Strobel and F. L. Brauns were appointed 
the committee. 

The extract from the German newspaper published in 
Philadelphia on the first day of July, 1837, translated as 
follows is : 

•"Thuringen, Germany, April loth, 1837. 
"A number of convicts out of the prison of Gotha will 
be sent in a few days under the escort of a secret police 
officer to Bremen in order to be transported to the United 
States of America, New York or Baltimore." 

In consequence of which C. G. Boehm, Chas. Spilker 
and S. P. Strobel were afterward appointed a committee 
by the president to act in conjunction with the city au- 
thorities on board of the vessel arrived, on which sus- 
picion rested, but no results were effected by it. The 
closest investigation made by the officers of the city au- 
thorities, assisted by the committee of the society, failed 
to find any convicts among the German immigrants who 
came here. The same charge was again made a number 
of years later, in the Know-Nothing times, which also 
proved unfounded. 

It stands to reason that emigrants who came to make 
this country their future permanent home, would not suf- 
fer convicts to accompany them without making it known 
on their arrival here, to have them transported back to 
the country from whence they came, and to those settled 



German Society of Maryland 103 

here it was a matter of their very existence and happi- 
ness that no convicts of their old country should be per- 
mitted to land. There is no reliable evidence that con- 
victs or felons were ever at any time shipped by any of 
the German governments to the United States. Political 
prisoners were sometimes pardoned on condition that they 
leave the country, these would go to England or come to 
our country and would become excellent citizens. Dif- 
ferent was the case wath 



I04 History of The 



" PAUPERS. " 

Persons unable to work and without means of support, 
harmless, but undesirable citizens, a burden to every com- 
munity wherein they live, and everywhere at all times 
communities, more or less, have availed themselves of 
every good opportunity to get rid of them. If a pauper 
is desirous to change his habitation to another country 
or distant city, with no or little prospect of his return, I 
would like to know the county, town or city which would 
not furnish him free transportation; this was done to 
some extent by German comimunities and the German 
Society of Maryland has done its utmost to prevent it. 
The paupers who succeeded in landing here, were the 
most persistent and pressing claimants for aid and sup- 
port from the society, a burden to its officers, and an ex- 
pense and injury to the community. The law prohibi- 
ting the landing of these unfortunates here, it was cruel 
to transport them back in the slow sailing ships to the 
port they came from in Europe. The society made ef- 
forts to prevent their embarkation at these ports and ap- 
pealed to the authorities thereof. 

At the meeting of the board of officers held March 
17th, 1838, Mr. F. W. Brune read an ordinance passed 
by the senate of the city of Bremen, the port from whence 
most of the German emigrants sailed for Baltimore, re- 
ferring to and preventing the exportation of paupers 
and vagrants. On motion of Mr. Solomon Etting the 
same, with an appropriate preamble, was ordered to be 
spread upon the minutes of the society. Tn the next 



German Society of Maryland 105 

year, December 26th, 1839, the society passed a law for 
the board of officers to elect annually, at a fixed salary, 
an agent of the society to collect the dues from the mem- 
bers and perform such othei' duties as the Board may 
prescribe for him. At the next meeting the board elected, 
as the agent of the society. Mr. Conrad Lindeman, at the 
yearly salary of $300. His duties were, beside collect- 
ing members' dues, to examine carefully and report, the 
condition of applicants for assistance, which may be re- 
ferred to him by the president or any of the board of 
managers, promptly to visit all vessels arriving at this 
port with German passengers, and kindly and benevo- 
lently aid them with his counsel, which may be suggested 
by the president and officers of the society, as to their 
residence whilst here, and their permanent location either 
here, or in any other State or territory of our country; 
and daily to call on the president for orders. 

It could not be prevented that, among the hundred 
thousands of German immigrants who landed at this 
port, in the course of time, a small percentage would be- 
come a burden to the city or were paupers, and much was 
said of this in those years; but the great mass became in- 
dustrious, prosperous citizens and taxpayers, and paid 
their honest share for the support of the poor of the city. 

It should also be borne in mind that 272,218 German 
immigrants who landed here in the years 1833 to 1876, 
paid to the city of Baltimore the sum of $408,327 in com- 
mutation passenger money, supposed to be for the sup- 
port of any pauper which may have been among them 
and become a burden to the city. A very large sum of 
money and in excess of the proportion of paupers which 
may have been among them. The United States Govern- 



io6 History of The 

ment, under the Immigration Laws, now collects four 
dollars from every immigrant who comes to our hospi- 
table shores, but not a dollar of the money is expended 
for the support of the poor, as formerly. 

In 1840, on motion of Gen. Joshua Medtardt, a com- 
mittee was appointed to revise and amend the by-laws of 
the society and Messrs. F. W. Brune, Benj. I. Cohen, 
Gen. J. Medtardt, and the counsellors F. W. Brune, Jr. 
and Brantz Mayer, Esqs., were named as the committee. 

At the meeting of December 26th, 1840, Mr. Albert 
Schumacher, one of our most prominent merchants, and 
consul for the Hansa towns, was elected president and 
held that office by re-election for more than thirty years 
until his death June 26th, 1871. 

In December, 1841, Mr. Claas Vocke was elected sec- 
retary of the board of officers, and later as president and 
vice-president, remained an officer of the society for more 

than sixty-two years until his death in , 

1903. 

In 1841, on motion of Dr. August Wegner, the presi- 
dent and secretary, were requested to draw up a petition 
to the legislature of Maryland for the appointment of an 
interpreter of the German language in the courts of the 
city of Baltimore, and thereafter a German interpreter 
was always one of the bailiffs of the courts. The anni- 
versary meetings of the society and the meetings of the 
officers were up to 1842 held at Beltzhoover's Hotel, 
where also the anniversary dinners took place. On 
January 3rd, 1842, the society and board of officers met 
at Boizards' European Hotel, thereafter and for the first 
time December 26, 1842, at the rooms of the society 
"Germania," No. 40 North Howard street. This society 




CLAAS VOCKE 



German Society of Maryland 107 

now called "The Germania Club" has ever since then 
and to the present day, free of costs, generously placed 
its well-furnished, commodious rooms at the disposal of 
the yearly and quarterly meetings of the German Society 
of Maryland and the meeting of its officers. 

In the session of the State legislature of 1842, Mr. Ris- 
teau, a delegate from Baltimore county, introduced a bill 
to repeal the act of 1833 allowing the German and Hi- 
bernian societies two-fifths of the passenger commutation 
money. The German Society held a meeting to protest 
against the passage of an act depriving her of an income, 
being only a part of the money collected from German 
immigrants ostensibly for assistance and support of the 
poor among them, and applied by the society together 
with other money, supplied by its members, for the very 
purpose of assisting these poor Germans in the most 
economical, best philanthropic manner. A strong com- 
mittee of five with the able counsellor Chas. F. Mayer, 
Esq., as chairman, was elected to devise ways and means 
to prevent the adoption of the bill ; it was defeated and 
the society continued to enjoy the income of the two-fifths 
of the passenger money. The liberal annual donations 
to the public free dispensaries of medicine to the poor 
were increased and the salary of the two physicians of the 
society of $50 increased to $100 a year, which by a reso- 
lution of the society was declared not intended as a com- 
pensation for their services but with a view to cover a 
portion of their actual expenses incurred in the cause of 
charity. The position of a physician of the German 
Society must have been very desirable among the medical 
profession of the city, there were most always several 



io8 History of The 

candidates in the field and often a contest which required 
repeated ballotting. 

We find famous physicians among them, Dr. Charles 
A. Wiesenthal, and Wm. Zollikoffer in the eighteenth 

century, Drs. Jacob Baer, Diffenderfer, August J. 

Schwartze, George Frick, Huttner, August Wegner, 
Joshua J. Cohen, F. E. B. Hintze, William Keerl, Eid- 
ward Schwartze, Henry Albers, F. Schurman, J. Hamel, 
L. Morawitz, etc. 

In 1844 there appeared again in several newspapers 
the old story that convicts had been sent from some parts 
of Germany, it was a vague general charge, based upon 
a malevolent rumor. The society took up the matter and 
in meeting adopted the following resolution, presented 
by Mr. B.'j. Cohen : 

"Resolved : That a committee of three be appointed to 
inquire into the truth or falsehood of the charge made in 
the public prints, that convicts are sent from some of the 
states of Germany to our shores, — and that if such is the 
fact, proper measures be taken by said committee, to en- 
deavor to prevent such immigration, and if the facts be not 
true as stated, that the public mind be disabused of such 
impression, calculated as it is, to excite and perpetuate 
prejudice." 

This was seconded by F. W. Brune. The chair ap- 
pointed on the committee Messrs. Biedemeyer, Cohen and 
Kail. On motion of Col. Mathias Benzinger it was re- 
solved that the above resolution be published in the news- 
papers. As in the previous charge of the same nature no 
evidence of the truth thereof could be found. Notwith- 



German Society of Maryland 109 

standing-, this malicious baseless charge was again often 
repeated in later years, especially in Know-Nothing times, 
and as often refuted. 

There was a steady increase from year to year of Ger- 
man immigrants who favored the port of Baltimore as 
convenient to reach by the national turnpike across the 
Alleghanies the cities of Wheeling or Pittsburg, from 
there to go by river boats down the Ohio and confluent 
rivers and waterways to the new States and territories of 
the far west. It was a long irksome trip by horse and 
wagon across the mountains to Wheeling or Pittsbun^. 
An advertisement which appeared in "The German Cor- 
respondent," a Baltimore paper, announced that an ex- 
press conveyance had been established whereby the immi- 
grant would reach Pittsburg in fourteen days. Cumber- 
land was one of the resting and forwarding stations on 
the route tO' Wheeling. It was reported to the German 
Society that German immigrants had been grossly im- 
posed upon by the forwarding agent at Cumberland, by 
being utterly deceived in regard to the character of con- 
veyances in which they were forwarded from Cumberland 
to Wheeling. The society placed the complaints in the 
hands of its counsellor, William F. Frick, Esq., to prose- 
cute the contractor for transportation of this city as well 
as the forwarding ag'ent in Cumberland for obtaining 
mone)^ imder false pretenses. 

Among such a large intmigration there were always 
some mechanics and laborers who had not the means 
to pay the expense and costs of the journey to the 
west or preferred to stay here. They were honest 
men, wilHng to work if they could find employment, but 



no History of The 

being strangers here, ignorant where to look for it. 
The society to assist them, in 1845, appointed Mr. 
WilHam Numsen, C. Deecke and C. W. Lentz as a com- 
mittee to consider and report on the expediency of estab- 
Hshing an intelhgence bureau, where, free of costs, men 
seeking employment could obtain information and advice 
and employers could leave orders for men they were in 
need. The committee made a favorable report and that 
Friedrich Raine, the proprietor and publisher of the Ger- 
man Correspondent, a public spirited citizen, offered for 
a very moderate compensation,' and only in view of the 
benevolent object, to place the bureau in the office of his 
newspaper, the society to pay for a permanent advertise- 
ment in the Sun, American and German Correspondent 
and for the pamphlets to be freely distributed on board 
of arriving immigrant vessels. The society accepted the 
offer of Mr. Raine and on January 16, 1845, entered into 
a binding contract with him. Mr. Raine was to keep 
a record of all applicants for work and of those who ob- 
tained employment through the bureau and annually make 
a report to the society. He reported more than 2,000 
applicants, whereof 600 found employment in the first 
year; more than 3,500 applicants whereof the greater part 
found emplo3mient in 1846. The existence of the intel- 
ligence bureau became known in nearby towns, and in 
the following years thousands of workmen were sent 
through the agency of the bureau to Cumberland, York, 
Washington, Boonsboro and places where factories were 
in operation or railroads being built. 

In January, 1853, the intelligence bureau was removed 
to the house of Jacob Ober, No. 59 Thames street. Jacob 



German Society of Maryland hi 

Ober was appointed the agent to have charge of said 
bureau on a salary of $250 a year, $50 rent and $100 
for clerk hire. 

In the month of July, 1845, ^ gross outrage had been 
colmmitted in the city by several ruffians upon the person 
of a young German girl named Margaretha Sailer, 
recently arrived from Gemiany with her brother. The 
ruffians were arrested and committed to prison for trial 
of their crime, to take place at the next October tertn of 
the criminal court. The girl was required as prosecuting 
witness for the State, to give bail in the sum of one thou- 
sand dollars for her appearance at the trial of the case, or 
else be confined until then in jail. She had no relatives 
nor friends here except her brother, who was, like her, d 
stranger and an immigrant, to give bail for her and keep 
her out of prison. It was then that Mr. Charles Degeri- 
hardt, one of the managers, and a Mr. Hess gave tempo- 
rarily bail for her till the next day, when it was to be 
renewed or the girl go to jail. The president, Mr. Schu- 
macher, on being informed, at once called a special meet- 
ing of the officers of the German Society to take proper 
steps for the protection of the unfortunate girl. The 
meeting was fully attended. In the absence of Messrs. 
Brune and Frick, the regular counsellors, from the city, 
George William Brown, Esq., later chief judge of the 
Supreme Bench of Baltimore, acted in their place and 
stead and represented the society in the cause at court. 
The society, with the consent of the court, placed Marga- 
retha Sailer and her brother in care of a committee of 
three, with the family of a Mr. Sollers, and paid for their 
hoard and lods:inof until the trial of the case. 



112 HiSTORV OF The 

In 1846 Mr. Charles Caspari, for many years a well- 
known Gemian apothecary in this city, was elected by 
the officers to furnish at the costs and expense of the 
society on the order and recipe of its physicians medicines 
to the sick poor. In 1849 the immigration increasing-, 
two more apothecaries, Mr. Stehl and Mr. Koechling, 
were added as dispensaries of medicine under the control 
of the society's physicians, and a Mr. Treiber, a resident 
of Cumberland, Maryland, was requested to- post the so- 
ciety of any imposition that migiht be perpetrated by any 
of the lines forwarding immigrants. 

Mr. Frederick Schepeler was appointed in 1849 ^^ ^^''^ 
of the committee to examine the treasurer's report. Some 
years thereafter he w^ent back to Germany and remained 
there. He must have taken with him a strong impression 
of the good work the German Society of Maryland was 
doing. Forty-five years thereafter, in 1895, he sent from 
his home in Miinden, Germany, to the society a generous 
donation of one thousand dollars. 

The failure of the revolution of the year 1848 in Ger- 
many for a more popular representative government, and 
the reactionary laws and measures which followed, caused 
a wide-spread discontent among its population. The 
leaders and most active men in the revolutionary move- 
ment fled their native country to escape political prosecu- 
tion, imprisonment and even death. Most of them after 
a sojourn in Switzerland, France or England came to the 
United States as refugees and with few exceptions re- 
mained here to become excellent citizens. They were 
mainly journalists, teachers, lawyers, artists, physicians, 
scientists, army officers, musicians, etc., all men of high 



German Society of Maryland 113 

culture and idealists. The first ol these arrived here in 
1849. Their number increased in the following years, 
and then it seemed as if a huge army were following their 
officers. Among the writer's fellow emigrants which 
crossed the Atlantic from Bremen in 1855 in the ship 
"Minerva," the principal topics of conversation of the 
men was their part in the fighting on the barricades in 
the revolution of 1848-49. 

The full tide of emigration from Germany to America 
took place in the years from 1850 tO' 1861. Many skilled 
mechanics and small tradesmen left the towns, but the 
host and multitude came from the agricultural country. 
The writer recollects well, when in the years from 1850 
to 1855, entire villagers in the central part of Germany 
sold or abandoned their acreage and all the inhabitants, 
from 100 to 500 men, women and children, with their 
pastor, school-teachers and burgomaster emigrated to 
America. In season he would daily see wagon trains 
loaded with trunks, boxes, implements, bedding, house- 
hold goods, often with the cradle on the top, the women 
and children on the wagons, the peasant men in their 
blouses walking alongside, men and horses decorated 
with artificial gay flowers, pass on the turnpike leading 
north to Bremen or Hamburg, there to embark for Amer- 
ica. More than 100,000 of these landed in that period in 
Baltimore, the agricultural class most all tO' proceed from 
here to the then far west to found new farming settle- 
ments; the skilled mechanics, artists, etc., to the various 
cities and towns, and an uncertain percentage would re- 
main here. There was a great and good work to do 
for the German vSociety of Maryland. No matter ho^v 



114 History of The 

intelligent a man may be, if he cannot by his ignorance ol' 
language make himself undestood, he is or st least ap- 
pears stupid. He will make mistakes, can easily be 
imposed upon and being a passing stranger, there are 
men w^io will take advantage of him, and some designing 
men will make it a trade by gaining the confidence of the 
stranger by knowing and speaking his own language, 
to swindle and rob him. To protect the honest emi- 
grants against these vampires of society and to inform 
them of the conditions awaiting theim on their arrival 
here, the German Society had annually thousands of cir- 
culars of useful information printed here and sent to the 
emigration ports of Hamburg, Bremen, Amsterdam and 
Havre to be distributed on the vessels among the pas- 
sengers before their departure. On their arrival here the 
agent of the society boarded the vessels and again distri- 
buted other circulars of wholesome information, ready to 
advise, assist and protect tliem against fraud and imposi- 
tion. ]\lr. Jacob Ober, who had been elected agent for tlie 
intelligence office of the society in January of 1853. died 
in July of the same year, and Mr. H. F. Wellinghoff was 
elected his successor and by yearly re-election, held that 
office for thirty years, until April, 1883, when he resigned 
by reason of old age. Mr. Wellinghoff was instructed to 
keep an office at Fells Point, near the landing of the emi- 
grant ships. His salary was $600 a year. He was also 
furnished a clerk. Mr. C. Lindemann was retained as 
agent in the city. He was now styled inspector, and in 
1859 succeeded by a Mr. John R. Hiltz, who thenceforth 
was called second agent. The medicine dispensaries 
were increased to seven, located in various parts of the 
city. To prevent paupers from landing and having them 



German Society of Maryland I15 

transported back to the. port they came from, remained 
one of the duties of the ag;ents and of remonstrance by the 
society to the agencies in Bremen. 

The foregoing dates have been taken from the record 
of the proceedings of the officers. The records of the 
proceeding of the society up to the year 1861 were des- 
troyed by fire. We now turn for information to the 
records of the society of January 16, 1861, recorded by 
Herman von Kapff, secretary, and find after the election 
of officers, resokitions prepared by G. W. Lurman, T. 
Cohen and H. von Kapff, committee, deploring the death 
of F. W. Brune and Charles G. Boehim, former vice-presi- 
dents, and H. G. Jacobson, all original and continuous 
members and founders (181 7) of the society. A com- 
mittee of Mr. E. Hirshfeld, C. Nitze, C. Bulling, F. Has- 
sencamp and T. Bruehl were appointed to procure new 
members. The report of Israel Cohen, treasurer, shows 
191 contributing members; cash surplus from last anni- 
versary dinner, $10.51 ; interest on investments of $27,000 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad First Mortgage, $1,620; 
$6,500 Baltimore city 6 per cent, loan, $390; passengers' 
money, $3,889.03 ; expended for physicians, $300 ; 
agents, $910.60; trusses, cupping and leaching, $78.25; 
paupers' conveyance to almshouse, $12; and returning to 
Europe, $15; medical prescriptions, 3,077; prescriptions, 
$547.66; printing, etc., $97.26; charity on orders of 
managers, $2,018.20; new investments, $1,000; Baltimore 
city 6 per cent, $972.50; Maryland State stock, $3,000. 

The society then at the beginning of the Civil War had 
a capital of $36,500, safely invested, laid by this prudenr 
foresight fairly well prepared to meet the coming storm. 
In 1 861, the first year of the war, industry and trade were 



ii6 History of The 

suspended in Baltimore. The mechanics and laborers 
were without employment, unable tO' earn their daily 
bread. Four thousand one hundred and fifty-eight per- 
sons applied in that year to the society for pecuniary 
assistance, and on investigation found worthy and given 
relief. The free medical prescriptions numbered 4,608. 
To meet these wants the members increased their sub- 
scriptions and the society sold $4,000 Baltimore City 6 
per cent, stock, due 1896, for $3,422.50. The German 
immigration diminishing to such extent that only 2,172 
German emigrants arrived in Baltim.ore in 1862. The 
mcome from passenger money was small. However, at 
the end of that year, Israel Cohen, the treasurer, in his 
annual report says : 

The operations of the past year show a diminution of 
sixty per cent, in our receipts and a corresponding decrease 
say fifty per cent, as compared with those of 1861. The 
former were increased last year (1861) owing to the sales 
of $4,000 city stock, which was required by the pressing 
wants of the unemployed, whilst during this year, the ex- 
cessive demand for labor has provided for very many, who 
would otherwise have been dependent upon the bounty of 
the Society. The receipts from passengers show a falling 
off as compared with last year of forty per cent. The appli- 
cations for assistance has fallen from 4,158 in 1861 to 1,116 
applicants in 1862. It may, however, be prudent to antici- 
pate a much larger call upon our charity before the expira- 
tion of the present year (1863) and it behooves us to pre- 
pare for the coming storm. The present invested fund is 
$32,500. Should it become necessary to encroach upon this 
fund to aid those who most need it, and for whose benefit 



German Society of Maryland 117 

it has been accumulated, it surely will in the exercise of wise 
charity not have been needlessly gathered. The disposition 
of this subject, may, I think, be properly entrusted to the 
finance committee, etc., etc. 

The report closes with the following : 

The undersigned cannot close this brief report without 
bearing testimony as far as has passed under his observa- 
tion, as to the faithful performance of every duty of the 
different branches of the Society, and whilst recommending 
a continuance of the same well doing, he must suggest every 
species of economy and as is consistent with prudence, not 
intending to deprive any who may be deserving of receiving 
the full benefits of this noble charity, but with the object 
of so dispensing our income that the greatest good may be 
done to the greatest number, and that when peace and hap- 
piness shall once more be restored to us, we may have the 
proud satisfaction of pointing to our past actions with gen- 
erous pride, and be prepared to continue our journey with 
the same satisfaction, we have experienced for so long a 
period. 

The appre'hension of tlie good treasurer of a coming 
storm of much larger call upon the charity of the society, 
however, was not confirmed. The year 1863 and subse- 
quent years w^ere of great prosperity to Baltimore. Being 
near the seat of war, Baltimore became a depot of anny 
supplies and war material. New industries and manu- 
factories were started, large numbers of soldiers and 
strangers visited the city and made purchases. There 
was plenty of work to be done at good wages. Immigra- 
tion gradually increased, the demands for charity de- 



ii8 History of The 

creased and the society gained new members. In Janu- 
ary, 1865, thirty- four new members joined. A commit- 
tee consisting of Charles W. Lentz, Frederick Raine, 
William Numsen and Charles Spilker was appointed to 
assist the State authorities to promote immigration to 
Maryland. The salaries of the physicians were increased 
to $200, and of the agents to $700 and $300 a year, re- 
spectivel}^ Seven apothecaries in different parts of the 
city were appointed to dispense medicines at the expense 
of the society. In 1868 Vice-President Charles Spilker, 
a most efficient officer and member c"! the society since 
1833, departed this life, and appropriate resolutions were 
passed at a special meeting held April 6. A convention 
oi State Immigrant and Benevolent Societies of the 
United States was held at the Broadway Hall, in Balti- 
more, in the middle of April, 1868. The society took 
part in the proceedings and paid the expenses of $267.05. 
This is the only item in the books of the society during 
the many years of its existence not strictly and directly 
spent for charity. The membership in 1869 was 200 
and increased in 1870 to 217. 

A bill pending before the legislature of Maryland im- 
posing increased taxation on arriving immigrants, the 
society at a meeting held March 29th, 1870, passed a 
series of resolutions protesting against the passing of 
such laws or measures, and Jacob Trust, Alexander Wolf 
and H. Wilkens were appointed a committee to present 
the resolution to the legislature; the bill was defeated. 
On January i8th^ 1871, the first donation of two hundred 
and fifty dollars, and in the following years until 1876 
in all the sum of nineteen hundred dollars was given by 
the society to the General German Orphan Asylumi of 



German Society of Maryland 119 

Baltimore City. On the 27th of June, 1871, the society 
suffered a severe loss by the death of its venerable Presi- 
dent Albert Schumacher, who, for over 30 years, had pre- 
sided at its meetings and guided the affairs of the society. 
He was one of our foremost merchants, a public-spirited, 
liberal citizen, who took an active part in all affairs tend- 
ing to the advancement of Baltimore city. His death 
was generally deplored by all citizens and by the members 
of the society in special meeting assembled. In his last 
will he bequeathed to the society $10,000 of Bialtimore 
city stock, the interest on which to be annually divided 
among destitute Germans, or suffered to accumulate till 
it may be concluded by the said society to found a hospi- 
tal or a home of refuge for which purpose also the whole 
or part of his bequest may be applied. 

The object of establishing a General German Hospital 
for the care of sick and destitute Germans as mentioned 
in the bequest was long considered, fully discussed and 
canvassed by the society and referred to a committee 
consisting of H. von Kapff, Isaac Cohen, Wm. Numsen, 
Ferdinand Hassenkamp, Christian Ax, Claas Vocke, 
Jacob Trust and Dr. Geo. Reuling, who reported that un- 
less the sum of $30,000 be first raised by private sub- 
scription, it was not practical for the German Society to 
establish a hospital. The report was adopted. The 
munificent donation by Johns Hopkins for a general hos- 
pital in the city, about that time, however, appeared to 
the members and citizens generally, to make the establish- 
ment of such a small hospital less urgent and desirable 
and nothing further was done in the matter. 

Herman von Kapff, a merchant and vice-president of 
the society, was elected the successor of Mr. Schumacher 



I20 History of The 

and by successive annual elections remained president 
seven years until 1878. wher. lie declined a re-election. 
At the meeting of January 4th, 1875, the death of Col. 
Mathias Benzinger for many years an active manager of 
the society was announced, and resolutions deploring his 
loss were passed. At the yearly meeting of January 20th, 
1875, Israel Cohen, the treasurer, read his thirty-first, 
and which was to be his last, yearly report. It was as 
all his annual reports, very full, lucid and encouraging. 
Proud of the achievements of the society in giving proper 
relief to the destitute and suffering, full of wise counsel 
to the management and as to the future of the noble 
charitable work, wherein he and his father before him 
had taken such a signal part. He concludes his report 
with the following pathetic words : 

"In conclusion then the undersigned has but to repeat 
his earnest prayers, that we may continue to render every 
aid and comfort to the deserving poor — that the sick and the 
destitute may be fully cared for, and that in the future we 
may not do injustice to our record of the past." 

On the 3rd day of June following, this noble man sud- 
denly died, within four years after his friend and cola- 
borer in the field of the noble charity, Albert Schumacher, 
the president for more than thirty years, had departed. 
Mr. Cohen could well say: that the future may not do 
injustice to our record of the past. The record of the 
society of the following period, and to the present time, 
shows no abatement in the true spirit of charity, economy, 
efficiency of management, and conscientious performance 
of duty, from the noble record of their predecessors. The 



German Society of Maryland 121 

demands upon the society increased as the city expanded, 
and the duties of the oi^ce of president became so mani- 
fold and onerous, that it could not be expected that a per- 
son of large business affairs of his own, holding that of- 
fice, could have the time and leisure to perform them. 
The society after due consideration thereof on January 
22nd, 1877, resolved to rent and open a business office 
located near the centre of the city, where its two agents, 
every day from 9 o'clock A. M. to 2 o'clock P. M., shall 
attend to the business of the society. The first agent to 
have the control and draw weekly from the treasurer 
funds on orders signed by the president, to pay the orders 
of and signed by the respective managers or president, to 
the applicants for charity. The first agent to keep full 
and correct books of account and information and give 
bond in the sum of five hundred dollars for the faithful 
performance of his duties : the second agent to be sub- 
ordinate to the first agent and to give bond in the sum of 
$250. The president, if convenient to visit the office 
daily and to have absolute control over the agents and 
conduct of business: the agents to visit the immigrant 
vessels on their arrival and the first agent is authorized 
if necessary to employ proper persons as assistants on 
such arrival of emigrants. The office to be also a free 
labor bureau to those seeking work or employment and 
the agents to treat those seeking assistance with kindness 
and politeness. 

By this necessary new arrangement of keeping an of- 
fice the expenses of the society were still further increased. 
They were in 1873, $8,146; in 1874, $9,028; in 1875, 
$8,735; hi 1876 the United States Court decided that no 
State could impose a tax on the landing of immigrants, 



122 History of The 

this being within the exchisive jurisdiction of the general 
government. Thereupon the steamship Hues and owners 
of immigrant vessels refused to pay further the commu- 
tation tax for their passengers. This was a loss of thou- 
sands of dollars yearly of the income of the society, whilst 
there was no diminution of the expenses, the applications 
for charitable assistance rather increased and the mana- 
gers were not inclined to refuse proper relief out of the 
treasury of the society. As a matter of course the report 
of John R. Seemuller, the treasurer elected as successor 
of Israel Cohen, dec, at the end of the year, 1876, showed 
a deficit of $1,393.17 and for the first time the invested 
capital of the society was encroached upon by the sale of 
some of its Baltimore city stock, etc. ; its capital at that 
time was $75,500. To meet the emergency, the yearly 
dues of members was raised from three dollars to five 
dollars, with a loss of twelve members, but the remaining 
members in 1877 by voluntary contributions over and 
above the $5 dues, contributed the sum of $548 to meet 
the deficiency of 1877. At the yearly meeting of January 
1 6th, 1878, Mr. Claas Vocke, a merchant who for years 
had been a prominent active officer of the society, was 
elected president, and Ed. Nieman treasurer., On March 
26th, 1878, a special meeting passed resolutions on the 
recent death of the Vice-President Charles W. Lentz, for 
forty years one of the officers of the society. Mr. Hein- 
rich F. Wellinghoff on July ist completed the twenty- 
fifth year of faithful service as agent of the society and 
resolutions of congratulation to him were spread on the 
minute book of the officers. On July 19th a special meet- 
ing deplored by approbate resolutions of the death of 
Frederick W. Brune, Esq., for more than forty years a 



German Society of Maryland 123 

member and for the last thirty years one of its faithful 
reHable counsellors. There were 234 members in 1877 
and 221 in 1878, the total expenses for the year 1878 
were reduced to $4,351.57 by the more economical work- 
ing of the medical department, and reducing the salaries 
of its four physicians from $200 to $100 each, per annum. 
The invested capital, in covering the deficiency of the 
income, was further reduced by $500. All efforts tO' in- 
crease the membership proved fruitless, more resigned 
than were admitted, there were but 206 members in 1880; 
185 in 1881 ; 178 in 1882; 170 in 1883; 194 in 1884; 190 
in 1885; 199 in 1886; 218 in 1887; 443 in 1888; 403 in 
1889; 391 in 1890. H. F. Wellinghoff, the agent of the 
society having become by old age too feeble to perform 
the duties of his office, the board dispensed with his serv- 
ices and on February 5th, 1883, appointed Julius Conrad 
his successor at a salary of $600 a year, and Carl Schling- 
loff was appointed second agent at a salary of $30 a 
month. In 1885 the society removed its office from No. 
147 West Lombard street to No. 78 South Sharp street, 
and Schlingloff having resigned as agent, G. A. Traut- 
wein Vk^'as appointed in his place. The expenses in the 
salaries of the agents being reduced, the strictest economy 
enforced ; the society could not reduce the wants of the 
poor and suffering. These were mostly widows with in- 
fant children having no means of support except by their 
hard work. The wages for woman's work in those years 
were starvation wages. Thirty cents for sewing a dozen 
heavy shirts, 28 cents for a dozen drawers, etc., were the 
ordinary wages. A widow with small children, who had 
to do her sewing at home, could with t6 hours daily work, 
earn but two to three dollars a week, njt to speak of sick- 



124 History of The 

ness of herself or children. The society therefore con- 
tinued to make inroads on the capital invested in former 
prosperous years. In 1881 the deficit was $196.68; in 
1882, $586.12; in 1883, $1,360.69; in 1884, $1,641.22; 
in 1885, $1,909.60; in 1886, $1,420; in 1887, $935.54; in 
1888, $1,048.20; in 1889, $1,096.49. At this rate, if con- 
tinued for twenty-five years, the entire capital of the so- 
ciety would be consumed, and if viewed by the experience 
of similar societies, the German Society of Alaryland 
would be extinct. Radical changes in the v/orking of 
the society were adopted and the next year showed a sur- 
plus of $1,250, and no further deficit occurred thereafter. 
At the end of the year 1886, Mr. Claas Vocke declined 
a re-election, and Louis P. Hennighausen, one of the) 
counsellors of the society since 1884, on January 24th, 
1887, was elected president and by re-election (1909) re- 
tains that office. We have read how the society in its 
infancy and early years of its existence; waged a long and 
hard fig-ht against the abuses of the redemptioner system, 
procured good and wholesome laws for the protection of 
thje redemptioners, prosecuted evil-doers and liberated 
free born white servants who were treated as slaves by 
their masters. It was in the years of the presidency of 
Mr. Vocke that the society was again called upon to as- 
sist and liberate a class of men who were unlawfully kept 
in quasi slavery, cruelly treated, robbed, and some mur- 
dered, these were 

Oyster Dredgers. 

Men who had hired on vessels in the waters of the 
Chesapeake Bay to dredge for oysters in the winter 



German Society oi*' Maryland 125 

season. It was very hard work done on small schooners, 
called pungies or buckeyes manned by six to ten men, 
captain, mate and cook. The season is from October to 
April, a heavy iron dredge is lowered by windlass in the 
water to the bottom and with a fair breeze moving, the 
dredge will scrape the bottom of the bay and scoop the 
oysters, the dredge with the oysters in it, is then by men 
turning the windlass, raised above and emptied on the 
deck of the vessel, where the oysters are culled and the 
marketable thrown in the hold. It was estimated that 
20,000 men were in those years engaged in tlie oyster in- 
dustry on the waters of the Chesapeake. The bottoms 
were yet full of oysters, and if the wind was fair and the 
water free of ice, dredging would often be done day and 
night, and in a couple of weeks they would have a full 
load for the market. Hard work, but often very lucra- 
tive. The inhabitants of the shore counties, usually 
worked on shares with the owners and captains of the 
boat and fared well, so did boats from Baltimore, and if 
on wages no complaints were made known by them. 

It was from the vessels belonging to the counties of 
Maryland and Virginia bordering on the shores of the 
lower or southern parts of the bay, dredging with hired 
labor obtained from Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburg, 
etc., that the reports of terrible suffering, cruel treatment 
and horrible murders reached Baltimore, The negroes 
of Baltimore, after the experience of a few seasons on 
these oyster vessels, refused to hire any more, then there 
were some cases of shanghieing negroes in tlie city for 
these vessels. The publicity by the daily press of these 
crimes and the activity of our police, soon put an end to it. 
It was then the home labor market bv the knowledo^e of 



126 History of The 

the cruel treatment of the men being closed, that the so- 
called shipping offices, applied to the large cities of the 
north for men to hire as oyster dredgers, promising from 
twelve to fifteen dollars a month wages, good eating, 
lodging and fair treatment, for reasonable work. There 
are always in the winter season in large cities, honest men 
willing and able to work, out of employment and short of 
means. The shipping agent or runner would be paid two 
dollars by the captain of the oyster boat for every man 
he induced to sign an agreement to work as oyster 
dredger for good wages, etc. The men were not told 
that the two dollars commission and railroad fare to Bal- 
timore would be deducted out of their first month's wages, 
and the kind and character of the work was not explained 
to them. The men were glad to get work at fair wages. 
Americans, Irish, Germans, Italians, etc., were taken by 
rail in droves, under the care of a shipping man from New- 
York to Baltimore, where they arrived usually at night 
time, and from there on board of a vessel, to be taken to 
the lower bay and distributed among the oyster dredging 
boats. They were sedulously kept from intercourse wath 
any outsider on the trip. They usually commenced to 
work at 5 o'clock in the morning and until dark in the 
evening, received the coarsest food:, and had to sleep with- 
out bedding in the small forepeak of the boat. They 
were a motley crowed of unfortunates, who were thus put 
to a work whereof they had not the slightest knowledge 
or experience, among them were by profession : clerks, 
teachers, students, bookkeepers, mechanics, artists, farm- 
ers, laborers, etc. Strangers to the land, to the work and 
to each other. The captains used to the hard life, were 




LOUIS P. HENNIGHAUSEN 



German Society of Maryland 127 

at home, fully armed and with the authority of the law, 
bent upon to get as much out of the men by their hard 
work as they could. The men during the cruise were not 
allowed to go on shore, when they had a cargo of oysters 
it was transferred to a steamboat or larger vessel and 
taken to Baltimore or Philadelphia. They were held and 
treated as captives, those of tender physic would soon 
break down from the exposure and hard work; often the 
flesh of their hands, being cut and poisoned by the pyster 
shells becamq violently inflamed, having the so-called 
oyster hand, very painful and requiring wrecks of medical 
treatment. If after cruel beating, the men were still 
shown, unable to work, they were put ashore without pay, 
on some place many miles from a city, to make their way 
the best they could in the midst of winter to the distant 
hospitals of Baltimore which they filled every winter in 
large numbers. The farmers and captains of the steam- 
boats were as a rule kind to these poor men and aided 
them to reach the cit}^ These were the ordinary ills and 
suffering of these oyster dredgers, but in the course of 
time when dredging was not always so profitable, and the 
captains by immunity of their cruelties to the foreign 
crews had become used to it, awful crimes of the darkest 
nature became frequent in those waters. The waters of 
the bay extend about iSo miles to the capes, with thou- 
sand of miles of shore of inlets and Lide water rivers. The 
shores are sparsely settled and whilst we had an oyster 
navy to protect the oysters from unlawful depredation, 
we had no police protection for the unfortunate dredger, 
defenseless at the mercy of a brutal, fully armed captain, 
and although it was well known and published by 



128 History of The 

the newspapers, that numerous hideous crimes were com- 
mitted on these waters. It became a habit with a large 
number of captains, at the end of the season, or when the 
severity of cold Imd covered the bay with ice to make 
dredging impossible, to put their foreign crews, often 
severely frost bitten, without paying them any of their 
hard earned wages, on some lonely landing on shore on 
the lower bay, to make their way in ice and snow to Bal- 
timore, Washington or Philadelphia. Reports came that 
captains had shot and killed men, on the slightest resist- 
ance or threats, although the men had no weapons, and 
the flimsy excuse for it by the captains, was the fear of 
mutiny. There was no investigation. On information 
to the United States courts the answer was, we have no 
vessel and no funds at our disposal to go the great dis- 
tance down the bay to find out and arrest the offender. 
The city authorities referred the matter to the counties. 
Some of the worst cases happened in the Virginia waters 
south of the Potomac River, out of the jurisdiction of 
Maryland. The greatest impediment w^as that the wit- 
nesses had no money and found no employment to remain 
here, to await the arrest and the trial of the offender. 
Being strangers here they were anxious to get to their 
homes and among their friends. In December, 1884, the 
horrible murder of a young German recently immigrated 
from Germany, became known to the German Society, 
and was the beginning of its struggle and efforts for 
many years, to protect the oyster dredgers from the bar- 
barous treatment on the boats in the Chesapeake Bay. It 
was one of many similar cases and we relate it in full r.s 
disclosed by the sworn testimony in the case: 



German Society oe Maryland 129 

Otto Mayher, 

who was about 20 years of age, was a hale, hearty looking 
fellow, with rosy cheeks and a brig*ht. healthy appearance 
He was the son of a surveyor of Stuttgart, well educated 
and of good manners. Among his effects were hand- 
somely engraved visiting cards and good clothes. Not 
f'uding for some time after his arrival here any employ-^ 
ment or work, on the 22nd of October, 1884, he, together 
with Fritz Boye and Ferdinand Haase, two young Ger- 
mans, who had arrived in t^his country within a year in 
Baltimore, shipped with Captain Williams of the pungy 
"Eva" as dredgers for a two months' cruise. The agree- 
ments were signed in a shipping office run by a German. 
Neither of them could speak English or were aware of 
the hardships they would be compelled to undergo. All 
went well for a time. They worked hard and were fairly 
treated. There were aboard with them aside of Captain 
Williams, Williaim Lankford and a man named Rufus, of 
Somerset county. About a week before his death May- 
her complained of feeling unwell. Fie told his comrades 
that he had severe pains in his side and was not able to 
work. His indisposition was attributed by them to ex- 
posure and with a few days' rest they thought he would 
have recovered. The captain, however, refused to let 
him off. He was ordered to his work as usual and when 
he finally broke down and declined, he was knocked down 
and brutally beaten. From that day Mayher was sub- 
jected to the most horrible treatment. Among other pun- 
ishments was that of being hit with a marlin spike and 
knocked down. He was then kicked until he fainted; 
again he was beaten with a rope and until he fairly yelled 



130 History of The 

with pain. To stop his cries the captain planted his heel 
on the victim's throat and stifled him into unconscious- 
ness. At another time a rope was fastened around him 
rbout his arm pits and he was hoisted up by the halyards, 
stripped of his lower garments and drenched about the 
lower limbs with icy cold water. On the day before his 
death he was taken down in the hold and strung up by his 
thumbs, the body being suspended seven feet above the 
f'ooring. While in this position he was swung to and 
fro in order to increase his torture. These are onlv 
samples of the horrible treatment he suffered. He be- 
came so weak that he was scarcely able to walk. The 
vessel had then reached Lower Fairmount, where th-2 
work of unloading was begun. Mayher was down in the 
hold when ordered up. Unable to speak English, he by 
signs intim;aited his inability to work. This infuriated the 
captain, who sprang upon his defen^:elcss victim, pounded 
him unmercifully with a bar. Finally he brought it do'wu 
with crushing eft"ect across the poor fellow's loins. In his 
agony 'he writhed on the ground and shrieked for mercy 
as best he could. To prevent his cries being heard the 
captain then placed his boot heel on the prostrated man's 
throat and kept it there until unconsciousness prevented 
further outcry. The work of unloading was continued, 
and at nightfall, when all was quiet, the captain ordered 
Boye and Haase to bring their comrade on deck. They 
obeyed the order, and more dead than alive, Mayher was 
brought from below. When they had deposited their 
burden on deck they were ordered below, there to remain 
until called. They went below and the hatches were 
closed on them. Hearing the clanking of chains, patter- 
ing on deck, moving of the anchor and the dashing of the 



German Society of Marylaxd 131 

yawl boat against the side of the vessel, they feared the 
worst. Suddenly the hurrying- noise on deck ceased and 
all was still as death. As soon as they considered it safe, 
the two men ascended and cautiously lifted the covering 
of the hatch as far as they were able. They saw a lantern 
moving on shore and the lifeless body of Mayher 
stretched on the ground. Mayher had been taken ashore 
by the captain to get rid of him. He staggered from 
weakness and either fell or was knocked down face fore- 
most and the captain placing his foot on the neck of the 
prostrate man, stamping on it, broke the victmi's neck. 
Williams informed the coroner of the county next morn- 
ing, November 29. that the body of a German named 
Otto Mayher had been found on the shore of the Manokin 
river, in Lower Fairmount. Life was extinct. A jury 
of inquest was summoned. Captain, Williams was one of 
the jurors and the principal witness. He testified that 
Mayher on the day before had fallen in the hold of the 
vessel and seriously injured himself; that during the 
night 'he must have walked to the shore where he was 
found. Rufus and Lankford corroborated him and Boye 
and Haase were not called from the vessel to testify as 
witnesses. And the jury found that Mayher had died 
from natural causes. The body of Mayher was buried 
in a trench of about two feet depth on the shore, and the 
incident was soon forgotten like the graves of so many 
poor foreign oyster dredgers, who lost their lives on the 
waters of the Chesapeake. Captain Williams before 
morning had moved his vessel with Boye and Haase on 
it out into the stream and prevented any one from coming 
on board. Immediately after the inquest he sailed away. 
During the four weeks that followed he treated the two 



132 History of The 

Germans much better, but would not allow them to ha\ c 
?ny intercourse with any one outside of the boat. When 
discharging a cargo, they were always directed below and 
were carefully watched. 

They were afraid of their lives and abided the time 
when they would be discharged to inform the proper 
authorities of this most foul and dreadful murder. They 
were discharged at Crisfield and reached Baltimore about 
the 24th of December and infomied the German Consul 
of the crime. The consul, by his attorney, L. P. Hennig- 
hausen, Esq., brought the matter to the notice of the 
police authorities of Baltimore, who at once took action 
with the State's attorney of Somerset county. Captain 
Williams was arrested and indicted for murder in the 
first degree. The body of Mayher was exhumed and a 
decent burial given. 

President Claas Vocke,, on hearing of the murder, di- 
rected F. W. Brune, the junior counsel of the society, to 
communicate with the State's attorney of Somerset count\^ 
for further information and, on January 5, 1885, ^^^'-^ 
his answer to the meeting of the board and made arrange- 
ment for the boarding and lodging of the two witnesses, 
Haas and Boye, who were without means or employment, 
to keep them here until the trial of Captain Williams, 
which was expected to take place in April next. On motion 
of Mr. H. G. Hilken a committee, consisting of Messrs. C. 
Vocke, Christian Ax, Eb. Niemann and the counsellors, 
William F. Frick and F. W. Brune, were appointed with 
authority to use the funds of the society in order that 
justice be done in the Mayher murder case. On motion 
of Christian Ax it was resolved that a detective be em- 
ployed by the president and counsellors to aid in the 



German Society of Maryland 133 

investigation of the case. The counsellor, F. W. Brune, 
of the society was present and rendered valuable assist- 
ance to the State in the trial of Captain Williams. Julius 
Conrad, the agent, conducted the two witnesses, Boye and 
Haase, to Somerset county and remained with them dur- 
ing the trial. Captain Williams was convicted of murder 
in the second degree and sentenced to 18 years in the 
penitentiary. The conviction and sentence was confirmed 
by the Court of Appeals of Maryland on the appeal of 
Williams, reported in 64 Md. Reports, p. 383 to 395. 

At the meeting of the board, held July 6, 1885, the 
board by resolutions deeply deplored the loss by death oi 
two valuable members, Mr. J. H. Hausenwald and Ferdi- 
nand Hassencamp. At a meeting of January 4, 18S6, on 
motion of Mr. Christian Ax, the counsellors were re- 
quested to inform the society what laws from congress 
or legislature were necessary for the protection of the 
crew on board of oyster vessels, and at the yearly meeting 
of January 25, 1886, Counsellor Louis P. Hennighausen 
made a full report of a body of laws for the better protec- 
tion of the crews on board of the oyster vessels, of which 
Counsellor F. W. Brune declared himself in accord. At 
tiie suggestion of Mr. F. W. Brune and on motion of Mr. 
Chr. Ax a committee of seven, consisting of Claas Vocke, 
F. William Brime, L. P. Hennighausen, Chr. Ax, Wm. 
Numsen, H. von Kapff and Victor Buschmann, were ap- 
pointed to appear before the legislature, then in session at 
Annapolis, to urge the adoption of such laws. The com- 
mittee visited Annapolis and appealed to the legislature, 
but the legislature adjourned without acting upon the 
matter; the influence of the lower counties and oyster 
industries being against it for reason of the costs, etc., of 



134 History of The 

the reg^istration of crews being required by the law. The 
society, however, w^as determined to renew the agitation 
and persist until success was achieved. At the next legis- 
lature, in January, 1888, a committee of 25 instead of 7 
from the German Society of Maryland was appointed to 
go before the legislature in Annapolis and demand the 
passage of laws to protect the oyster dredgers. F. \V. 
Erune, Heinrich C. Tieck and Oscar Wolff, attorneys ac 
law, were appointed a special committee to draft suitable 
laws tO' be submitted and accompany the committee. The 
members of the committee were : Claas Vocke, H. von 
Kapff, George A. Von Lingen, Frederick Wehr, Kb. Nie- 
mann, William Middendorf, Ernst Schmeisser, H. G 
Hilken, Louis Dohme, John Hinrichs, V. H. Buschmann 
Henry Lauts, H. A. Sdiultz, Capt. Henry Steffens, IT 
Knefely, Chas. Bein, F. Ellenbrock, Jc'-eph Friedenwald 
Charles Hilgenberg, P. L. Keyser, Fr. Oelmann and L. P 
Hennighausen. Other prominent citizens, members o' 
the society, joined the committee on its trip to Annapolis, 
and it was an imposing demonstration before the legis- 
lature in behalf of the poor oyster dredgers for their better 
protection. Addresses were made by Messrs. Brune, 
Tieck, Wolft' and Hennighausen. The laws, substantially 
as recommended by the society, were passed by the legis- 
lature and signed by the governor, to go into effect in the 
year 1890, January t. The principal provisions of the 
law were : A registry kept by commissioners at the ship- 
ping ports of the crews of every oyster dredging boar, 
contracts in writing before the commissioners and record 
thereof of the period of time, wages, return to port, etc., 
and the captain to account for every man not returned; 
and adequate punishment for violators of the law. 



German Society of Marvland 135 

On February 15, 1887, Jacob Rudolph, one of the 
managers of the society for the preceding twenty-two 
years, departed this life, and at a special meeting of the 
board resolutions deploring his loss were passed. 

Soon thereafter, on March 21, 1887, another special 
meeting was called by the president. 

Christian Ax, vice-president of the society since 1869 
and for many years an active member and liberal con- 
tributor to charity, had departed this life. Resolutions 
deploring his loss not only for the society, but that the 
German inhabitants of the city had lost in him one of 
their best and truest citizens, were passed. 

In the winter of 1886-87, o^^ the report of cruel treat- 
ment of a German oyster dredger in the lower bay, the 
society at an expense of $66.25 ^^^'^^ ^ tug boat with 
United States marshal on board to have the offending 
captain arrested. The captain hearing of this escaped, 
but was later arrested on land and punisihed. In April. 

1887, the society received from one H. W. Schmidt, of 
Honolulu. Sandwich Islands, $73 to reimburse it for the 
assistance rendered for a number of years to a poor 
widow of the name of Weber. The income of the society 
not being sufficient to meet the demands and costs espe- 
cially increased by the efforts to protect and relieve the 
oyster dredgers, some of its members made strenuous 
efforts to increase the paying membership by soliciting 
citizens to join the society, and at the meeting of April 2. 

1888, Mr. Ernst Schmeisser proposed 60, Mr. A. C 
Meyer, 60; Mr. Charles Weber, Jr., 33; Mr. Robert M. 
Rother, 10; Mr. John Hinrichs, 7, and Messrs. Meeih 
and Conrad, 4, a total of 174 new members. This in- 
creased the list of members from 218 in 1887 to 443 hi 



136 History of The 

r888, the largest membership the society ever had. In 
1889 it decreased to 400; in 1890 to 389; in 1891 to 373; 
in 1895 to 348; in 1900 to 252 members. It then slowly 
increased again, and since 1904 has averaged from 300 
to 325 members yearly. 

It being the opinion of some that tlie Germania Club 
rooms were not a popular meeting place for the society 
and the cause of its limited membership, on the motion of 
Ernst Schimeisser it was resolved to meet thereafter at 
some other place. The meetings were next from July 16, 
1888, to April 14, 1890, held at tlie Germania Maenner- 
chor Building, on Lombard street. These were found 
less suitable and on April 14, 1890, and July 14 the meet- 
ings were in the German Orphan Asylum, on Aisquith 
street. The locality being inconvenient, the society on 
January 12, 1891, and thereafter until April, 1893, met 
at Raine's Hall, in Baltimore street, corner of Postoffice 
avenue. All these places were at the disposal of the 
society free of rent, with no expense for heating, lighting 
or cleaning. The smaller attendance at those meetings 
showed that the old home in the rooms of the Germania 
Club was after all the best meeting place for the society, 
and on application, the club was generous to receive the 
society again on April 10, 1893, on the same old liberal 
terms, free of rent and expense. 

The United States Government having assumed full 
control of the landing of the emigrants by immigrant 
commissions, and the railroad transporting the emigrants 
to the west from their landing pier here, the former acti\''- 
ity of the society in advising, aiding, protecting and tak- 
ing care of these emigrants became superfluous, and it 
confined itself more to assist the needy Germans and 



German Society of Maryland 137 

descendants of Germans living- in our midst, and amon.j- 
those especially, to widows with infant children having no 
income or support. As a measure of economy the as- 
sistant agent was in March, 1889, discharged. The agent 
was relieved from the duty of attending the landing of 
emigrants, he, to remain at his office from 9 A. M. to | 
P. M. to attend to employment seekers, pay orders of the 
managers given to the needy, keep books, etc., and after 
\ P. M. to visit at regular intervals those who received 
regular monthly allowance, to inspect and report their 
condition, and carefully to investig-ate every new appli- 
cant for assistance and make full reports to the officer of 
the board for action, and to enter the reports in a book 
kept for inspection. 

Mr. Eberhard Niemann, the faithful treasurer, being 
about to retire from business and spend his declining 
years in Germany, resigned his office, and Charles Weber, 
Jr., on July 31, 1889, was elected treasurer, which office 
he held until his death June 30, 1908. 

To prevent further inroads upon the invested capital of 
the society by yearly deficits and thereby its ultimate ex- 
tmction. Col. Fredk. Raine in the annual meeting of Jan- 
uary 27, 1890, moved: "That henceforth the capital 
shall be kept intact," which was unanimously adopted. 
The large number of medicinal prescriptions which had 
been compounded at the cost of the society and the salaries 
of the physicians amounted to about $ 1,000 a year. There 
had been opened in different parts of t'he city free dis- 
pensaries of medicine, which were hberally supported by 
the city out of certain fines imposed and collected by the 
city authorities. Johns Hopkins Hospital and other hos- 
pitals gave free medical and surgical treatment to the 



138 History of The 

poor. There being thus ample provisions for sick in- 
digent poor persons, the society on October 4, 1889, di-:- 
continued the practice of furnishing medicinal prq>ara- 
tions free of charge. The salaries of the physicians was 
reduced to $200 a year, and in 1894 only one physician 
was appointed without any fixed salary, he to be paid for 
whatever professional services he might render upon 
request of the officers. By these economic measures the 
society was enabled to support more liberally poor widows 
with infant children. Every member of the board hav- 
ing the right to issue an order on a printed form, directing 
the agent to pay to the person described therein as being in 
need and worthy of assistance a sum not exceeding fi\'e 
dollars, it was found that some of the managers were 
more generous and liberal with the society's money than 
the finances allowed. Others would give without taking 
the trouble of a personal investigation of the condition of 
the applicant. A committee consisting of L. P. Hennig- 
hausen, R. M. Rother, Charles Weber, Jr., and A. C. 
Meyer was appointed to make such changes and sug-ges- 
tions as would prevent further deficits, made a rigid 
mvestigation and discovered a number of unworthy per- 
sons who received assistance froim the society through 
orders issued by careless managers. It was thereupon 
ordered that no order issued by a manager should be paid 
unless the agent of the society had first investigated the 
condition of the applicant and made a report thereof to an 
executive committee oi three members to be annually 
appointed by the president, and only after the executive 
committee had approved the order shall the treasurer by 
the agent pay the same. At the meeting of the board of 
January 27 and February 10, 1890, the recommendatior.> 



German Society of Maryland 139 

of the committee were adopted and the president ap- 
pointed R. M. Rother the secretary, Charles Weber, Jr., 
the treasurer, and A. C. Meyer the executive committes. 
Tliis new order of working has proved satisfactory and 
been continued. On March 17, 1890, on recommenda- 
tions of the executive committee, thirty-one pensioners of 
the society, found unworthy, were dropped of furthiT 
assistance. On April 17 Mr. Charles Weber announced 
the death of Julius Conrad, the agent, and Frederick 
Schad was elected his successor. 

In January, 1889, on motion of Mr. Rother, a ne\\^ 
edition of the constitution of 1868, with the changes and 
amendments since adopted, was ordered to be printed. 
The secretary sent communications again to our sister 
societies of New York and Philadelphia, requesting them 
to make known to German emigrants by circulars and 
otherwise of the character and danger in hiring as oyster 
dredgers in our bay. The officers of the society also 
induced the 'Hon. A. S. Hewitt, the mayor of New York, 
10 sumimon the shipping agents licensed by the city before 
him, and admonish them that he would revoke their 
license if they continued shipping men as oyster dredgers 
to the lower bay. However, the trade was too lucrative 
and the lower bay so distant as to be practically out of 
reach of the law ; so the trade in hiring these ignorant men 
continued. In the beginning of the season of 1889-90 a 
case of great cruelty was reported. At the request of the 
board our attorney, Heinrich C. Tieck, Esq., w^ith a 
United States Marshal and a warrant for the arrest of 
the captain, Lynn Rea, and mate, John Ueey, of the oyster 
boat "Ella Agnes," went down the bay and arrested them 
on the v/ater, brought them to Baltimore, where they 



140 History of The 

were in the United States District Court tried, convicted 
and punished. The captain was sentenced to six months' 
imprisonment and to pay a fine of $ioo; tlie mate, Ucey, 
tO' three months in prison. The crew, Eugene JungHng, 
George Ricks, Wilhelm Hoffman, Joseph Scherf and 
John Junker, were kept as witnesses, and after the trial on 
March lo, 1890, they reimbursed out of their witness 
fees the German Society in the sum of $35, expenses in- 
curred on their behalf. The attorney generously refused 
any compensation for his arduous work; and it is to ■:)e 
noted that no attorney of the society ever charged or 
would accept any compensation for the many and great 
services they rendered to the society in its noble work of 
humanity in protecting the innocent oppressed poor anl 
unfortunate. The creav in a patflietic letter expressed 
their deep-felt gratitude to the society for their liberation 
out of slavery and cruel treatment. The punishment of 
Gapt. Rea and Mate Ucey made some impression on the 
captains and for some years no cruelties were reported. 
The discharging and landing of men on distant desolale 
shores, without paying iliem their wages, however, con- 
tinued. In December, 1889, a German recently arrived, 
\'ho could not understand a word of English, was after a 
month's work as oyster dredger, without a cent of his 
wages paid, put on shore in Dorchester county. Being a 
total stranger, unable to make himself understood, afraid 
of violence, he slept in the woods. He was arrested and 
committed for three months to the work-house. Thd 
society being informed of it, by habeas corpus proceed- 
ings in the Baltimore City Court on the 22nd day of 
December, 1889, procured his freedom. He at once 
found einployment at his trade as a mechanic. He had a 



German Society of Maryland 141 

trunk filled with his clothes, tools, etc.. stored at a board- 
ing-house in Baltimore and proved to be an industrious, 
honest man. 

At the session of the legislature of 1890 the shipping 
agents, oyster captains and their friends made strenuous 
efforts to have the law, which was passed by the legisla- 
ture of 1888 for the protection of oyster dredgers, re- 
pealed. The officers of the society succored by the active 
aid of the Maryland Prisoners' Aid Society, the Hiber- 
nian, St. Andrew and St. George Societies of Baltimore, 
opposed the repeal and succeeded. Commissioners under 
the law were appointed and confirmed by the senate. In 
June, 1890, a petition for the pardon of Captain Williams, 
the murderer of Otto Mayher was filed with the Governor 
of the State. He had served only five years of his term 
of 18 years for his awful crime. A large delegation of 
the society together with delegates from the charity so- 
cieties aforenamed went before the governor and pro- 
tested against granting the pardon and it was not granted. 
In the years 1890 and 1891 there were few complaints. It 
was in February, 1892, that a colored man informed 
President Hennighausen that three men, presumably Ger- 
mans, were in the lower bay on the oyster schooner 
"Bertha May," Captain Mills, unlawfully detained be- 
yond the time they hired for and badly treated. The 
president lodged complaint in the name of the society be- 
fore Governor Brown of the State, who sent an oyster 
police boat, had the captain arrested on his schooner in 
Honga River, brought before Justice Hart, who fined 
him $50 and costs, and set the men free. In December, 
1892, the president being informed by an escaped captive 



142 History of The 

named Witzigman, that a number of Germans were held 
captives on several dredge vessels, he induced Governor 
Brown to send one of the State police steamers to their 
rescue and Col. Heinrich C. Tieck. as attorney of the 
German Society of Maryland, with Captain Edward Bid- 
dleman, United States deputy marshal, on December 26th, 
1892, left Baltimore on the State police stean'er "Gov- 
ernor McLane," for the lower bay. The intrepid brave 
Colonel Tieck was armed with nine lurits of habeas corpus 
and thirteen warrants issued out of the United States 
District Court at the instance of the society, for the arrest 
of the violators of the law. It had been reported that one 
of the oyster captains on October 13th, 1892, came to 
New York and by fair promises of light work, good 
treatment, board, lodging and $14 a month wages, hired 
thirty-two recently arrived emigrants as oyster dredgers 
on the lower bay, without having them registered by a 
commissioner as required by law. Fourteen of these men 
were Germans and among these, four youths who had 
landed in New York on the 13th and on the 14th of 
October were in Baltimore on board of an oyster vessel, 
the rest were of various nationalities. They were hired 
for the season ending April i, 1893, with the understand- 
ing, that if they did not like the work they could leave on 
November ist, 1892. On November ist they all wanted 
to leave, but were kept prisoners on board the several 
vessels. Severe winter weather had set in. The bay 
was full of ice and the rivers frozen over. On December 
29th, the president received the following telegram from 
Colonel Tieck — Chrisfield, Md., December 29th, 1892: 
"Met the enemy. He is ours ; rescued fifteen men and 
made four arrests." On the following day nineteen oys- 



German Society of Maryland 143 

ter dredgers freed by Colonel Tieck and sent at the ex- 
pense of the society to Baltimore, came to the office of 
the president. Their appearance indicated that they had 
endured great hardship and privations. The hands of 
the men presented a horrible sight, hardly one out of the 
entire number being without a rude bandage, which 
covered cuts and bruises. 

They brought the following report in writing from 
Colonel Tieck to the president, dated "Steamer Geo. R. 
McLane, December 29, 1892, near Ragged Point, Poto- 
mac River : 

Dear ^Ir. Ilennighausen : — We arrested four men and 
freed twelve men, who will go per steamer from Crisfield, 
if that port is not closed by ice, or go to Drum Point on the 
Patuxent river if we can land there. We have had a hard 
time at Leonardtown, St. Alary's county, where we met a 
whole fleet of oyster vessels. There we arrested the cap- 
tain, we were especially in search for, and placed him in 
the Leonardtown jail to await the action of the U. S. Dis- 
trict Court. We seized the schooner "Partnership" whereof 
the father of the prisoner was in command. I boarded the 
vessel and was told by the crew that one of their number, a 
youth of 20 years, named Kleber, of Frankfurt a. M., had 
been hit by the captain on his hand with a hammer that 
the blood squirted from it, and so seriously injured that 
in the following night he jumped overboard and was lost. 
I am convinced that he lies dead on the bottom of the Po- 
tomac ; as no human being could live in the icy cold water 
for five minutes. This captain was arrested by Capt. Tur- 
ner of the Str. "Govn. McLane" for violating the State 
Oyster Laws, found guilty by a Justice of the Peace in 



144 History of The- 

Leonardtown and fined $50 and costs. We freed six men 
of his crew and sent them aboard the "McLane." This 
case cost the Captain $200 and he had to leave one of his 
boats as security in possession of his attorney at Leonard- 
town for the payment of costs and fees otherwise he would 
have gone to jail to keep company with his son. However, 
I am not done with him and shall continue his case before 
the U. S. Commissioner Bond. He sailed with his mate and 
cook and the mate of the boat of his son for Baltimore. The 
mates and cook are colored. They were arrested with the 
captain here but could not be held under the State laws. 
I shall therefore obtain warrants for their arrest from the 
U. S. Commissioner. I have directed the witnesses (the 
crews of both vessels) to your office; it is advisable to take 
them before a U. S. Commissioner to obtain warrants for 
the arrest of mate Walter Sykes, colored, of the bugeye 
"M. E. Dennis" No. 155, Capt. Stewart H. Evans; also for 
the mate, Joseph Sanders, mulatto, of the "Lucy Gallagher" 
No. 154; for Andrew Cooper, colored, mate of the same 
vessel, all of them now on board of the "M. E. Dennis", 
Capt. Stewart H. Evans, sailing for Baltimore. It is best 
that they should be arrested as soon as they arrive in the 
harbor, for after they have landed, these three devils in 
human form may escape. The witnesses against Capt. Ed- 
ward Evans, of the "Lucy Gallagher" No. 154, are Otto 
Casar, Josef Korzulla. Emil Bahn (principal witnesses), 
Nicolas Margne, Adam Sorkal, Jean Blue and Frank 
Casper. These are also witnesses against the colored mates, 
Josef Sanders and Andrew Cooper. The witnesses against 
the colored mate. Walker Sykes, of the bugeye "M. E. 
Dennis", are Charles Lenz, Oscar Rief, Chas. Muffer, John 
\^Trge, Emil Kochler, Ignaz Krandanz and Paul Poucani. 



German Society of Maryland • 145 

See to it that the Commissioner will hold the witnesses for 
the negroes may not arrive in Baltimore for a day or two. 
We are now looking for the schooner "Viola" No. 505, and 
are at the mouth of the Potomac. It is very cold and many 
vessels are frozen in. This morning our steamer was sur- 
rounded by ice and is now rocking heavily. 

When we told the poor oyster dredgers that they were 
free and we would take care of them, the scene was inde- 
scribable. They were overjoyed, tears ran down their 
cheeks, they embraced and kissed each other, and when we 
asked them how they felt, they cried "happy! happy!" 

We marched in procession to the courthouse in Leonard- 
town, the three colored men handcuffed at the head, it cre- 
ated great excitement, the better class of the inhabitants 
sympathized with the poor dredgers and I heard many 
words of praise for our society." 

Col. Tieck further reported that he caused three minor 
boys to be set free. In a later letter he writes : Since I 
wrote to you this morning, we came up with the "Viola" 
and rescued five men, one Irishman and four Germans, who 
will appear as witnesses against the captain, who together 
with his mate, left the ice-bound boat, when the crew had 
neither victuals nor water on board. The crew would have 
perished or starved to death if we had not arrived in time, 
as it was impossible for them to reach the shore, it being 
a mile distant and the water covered with ice. There are 
about 150 vessels frozen in. The suffering among the poor 
oyster dredgers must be terrible. I still have much evi- 
dence of other cases in my hands, the difficulty is that we 
cannot do anything in Crisfield against the cruel cap- 
tains but have to apply to the U. S. Court in Baltimore. 
(Signed) Heinricii C. Tieck." 



146 History of The 

The dredgers were taken by the president before United 
States Commissioner Bond, warrants issued and the cap- 
tains and mates arrested. Colonel Tieck returned on the 
fourth of January, 1893, ^^'^^^ o^'' the fifth there was a 
hearing before the Commissioner in the case against Cap- 
tain Evans, of the Schooner "Mary E. Dennis." The 
German Society was represented by L. P. Hennighausen, 
Col. Wm. F. Brune and Col. Heinrich C. Tieck, attor- 
neys ; the United States Government by John T. Ensor, 
United States Attorney, and the prisoners by the Hon. 
Thomas G. Hayes. The testimony showed cruel and 
brutal treatment, especially of the young man Kleber, 
who jumped overboard ; that they received insufificient or 
spoiled food, several of them showed bruises where they 
had been hit by the captain and his colored mates. Ignaz 
Grandaz was struck by the captain with a hammer on his 
nose, and at another time the captain and mate poured a 
bucket full of cold water over his head, for no cause that 
he knew of. They were kept as captives, not allowed to 
go on shore, etc. The captain was committed for court, 
tried, found guilty of cruel treatment, fined and im- 
prisoned. 

It is remarkable that on the 2nd of January, 1893, the 
"Canton Oyster Exchange" passed resolutions of protest 
against Governor Brown for permitting the State Oyster 
Police Steamboat "Governor McLane" to be used on this 
errand of mercy and justice in liberating the poor oyster 
dredgers out of slavery. 

The German Society, however, piu'sued its even way 
as the friend of the poor and oppressed. Every one of 
the many cruel captains and mates it had in those years 
arrested, was convicted, and those of them who wronged 



German Society of Maryland 147 

their crews out of their hard earned wages by outrageous 
overcharge for matches, tobacco, boots, oilskin clothes, 
socks, etc., were compelled by libels against their vessels, 
to reduce the charges to reasonable market prices and pay 
the heavy costs of the libel. There were in January, 
1893, a number of complaints of brutal treatment and 
horrible sufifering. Karl Springer on January ist com- 
plained of the oyster boat ''Marsella" No. 35. There 
were six men in the crew ; it was very cold, heavy ice 
formed on the water, and the captain and mate rowed 
ashore and left them five days without a drop of water or 
wood to make a fire, when the ice had frozen to the thick- 
ness to bear a man. they escaped over the ice, on reaching 
shore they were pursued and fled for their lives. This 
hiappened in Virginia water out of the jurisdiction of 
Maryland. 

On the 6th of January, Fritz Bauer of the boat "Jose- 
phine Smith" escaped. He related an even more horrible 
experience. 

Henry French, 24 years old, from New Orleans, a son 
of A. B. French, of A. B. French & Co., exporters of 
heavy lumber, was shanghied and escaped after fifteen 
days on board by swimming ashore on Sunday night. 
Five Germans escaped from the schooner "Sumner," 
Capt. Charles Light, of Accomac county, Virginia, re- 
ported atrocious cruel treatment. They had suffered, 
and stated that a German on the schooner "Boggs" at 
anchor near the "Sumner" was by the captain or mate of 
the vessel kicked to death and his body buiied on the 
shore. 

The reports of cruelties and murders were so frequent 
in 1893 that the other charity societies of the city, the 



148 History of The 

Charity Organization, St. Andrew's Society, Hibernian, 
St. George's Society and French Society united with the 
German Society to form a bureau for the protection of 
the oyster dredgers, and opened headquarters at 210 
South Charles street. L. P. Hennighausen of the Ger- 
man Society, was elected president; Alexander H. Rob- 
ertson of the St. Andrew's Society, secretary; Major O. 
H. Horton of St. George's Society, treasurer; Patricic 
Reilly of the Hibernian Society, William H. Perkins of 
French Benevolent Society, and John Glenn of the 
Charity Organization Society, committee. Col. Heinrich 
C. Tieck was retained as counsel for the bureau. Large 
placards were ordered to be printed to be hung in the 
shipping offices, and smaller ones distributed among 
dredgers, calling attention to the purpose of the bureau, 
and advising the filing of all just complaints for any kuid 
of unlawful treatment with it. This had a good effect, 
and less cases for non-payment of wages or cruel treat- 
ment were noted and tried in courts. 

The oyster captains, packers and industry in sympathy 
with them, fretted under the restrictions of the register 
laws of 1888, which impaired and hindered them in their 
greed for large profits at the expense of the poor dred- 
gers and having more political influence in the counties, 
than the charity organizations of the city, were active for 
the repeal of those laws. At the meeting of the society 
of April 29, 1895, F. W. Brune, Esq., the counsellor re- 
ported that by an act proposed by the legislature of Mary- 
land at the last session on the 29th of April, 1894, Chap- 
ter 379, the laws for the protection of oyster dredgers in 
the Chesapeake Bay had been so amended as to defeat to 
some extent the object in the protection of oyster 



German Society of Maryland 149 

dredgers, and that by the enacting clause of the next 
Chapter No. 380 the entire law so far as it related to the 
protection of oyster dredgers had been repealed. This 
was a great surprise and a severe blow to the efforts of 
the society. Not a line had been published in the daily 
papers of the effect of these chapters, and its officers were 
in complete ignorance of the repeal during the session of 
the legislature. Dispairing of a remedy of the evil from 
the hands of the State, the charity organizations now ap- 
pealed to the Congress of the United States to have the 
strong arm of the Federal Government invoked for the 
protection of the oyster dredgers about the same as it ex- 
tended to sailors, especially in securing their wages. A 
bill No'. 383 to prohibit shanghaing and peonage in the 
United States, etc., under severe penalties, was intro- 
duced in the House of Representatives by Mr. Moerel, of 
Pennsylvania, and referred to a committee who gave a 
public hearing on February 2nd, 1906. There appeared 
before the committee in favor of the passage of the bill, 
representatives of the four Baltimore charity societies, 
the American Seaman's Friend Society of New York, 
the Local Seaman's Society of New York, the Virginia 
Mariner's Friend of Newport News, Virginia, the Legal 
Aid Society of New York, the Protestant-Episcopal Sea- 
man's Society, the Seaman's Christian Association and 
the Legal Aid Society of Philadeli)hia. John C. Rose, 
United States District Attorney of Baltimore, took deep 
interest in the passage of the bill, also appeared and gave 
a graphic description of his seven years' experience in the 
trials of oyster captains, etc., and assisted in amending 
the bill to make it more effective in the protection of oys- 
ter dredgers. Statements of the grievances were made 



150 History of The 

by the representatives of the several societies, tlie per- 
sistent valiant fight of the German Society of Maryland 
in behalf of the oyster dredgers was often alluded to. A 
number of letters, from prominent citizens, among them 
Bishop O. A. Whitaker of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, 
Co-adjutor Bishop Alex. Mackay Smith, R. S, J. Ran- 
dolph, E. W. and Mrs. R. R. Bradford, Philip E. How- 
ard, John B. McPherson, Charles C. Binney and others 
were read. It was shown by these letters and by the rej)- 
resentatives of the New York, Philadelphia and Balti- 
more societies that the practice of shang^haing was very 
prevalent in these cities, in the manner in which men were 
lured to Maryland by promise of well-paid work, and 
then, usually stupefied by the influence of liquor or drugs, 
or by deception or by brute violence, were put on board 
of oyster boats and kept there as practical slaves for 
weeks and months without proper food or accommoda- 
tions and without any certainty as to their pay or time of 
discharge. United States District Attorney John C. 
Rose stated : 

"The one curious result of all the cases that come befoi -3 
us is that I have never met any of them who had ever 
been paid for a day, no matter how long he had worked.'" 
The bill prescribed a punishment fur any person, being 
of the crew or ships company of any vessel engaged ir: 
the oyster trade, etc., shall ship any person while in a 
state of intoxication, or while laboring under any false 
impression, and shall thereupon forcibly confine or detain 
such person on board of such vessel \\ilh intent to make 
such person a slave or compel him to perform involuntary 
service of any kind, and every person wlio shall in any 
way aid or abet such action, shall be guilty of felony and 



GerMx'^n Society of Maryland 151 

shall be punished by imprisonment not exceeding ten 
years, etc. 

Mr. Moerel accepted the suggestions of the District 
Attorney, John C. Rose, and re-drafted the bill, which 
was adopted by Congress and is now law. Mr. Rose <.t 
the next session of Congress had further acts passed f(^r 
the better protection of oyster dredgers, and as far as 
laws can do it the oyster dredger now enjoys full protec- 
tion. A large share of ihe credit for this noble achieve- 
ment is no doubt due to the German Society of Maryland, 
who took the initiative, and with energy and persistency 
continued at large expense for many years the humane 
effort to obtain good effective laws for the protection of 
the oyster dredgers. We now return to the ordinary 
routine work of the society. The temporary evils of the 
redemptioner system and oyster dredger slavery had been 
met and disposed of, but as it is said, "the poor shall 
always be with you," and among them the poor zuidozv 
ivith infant children admits of no doubt in Ijhe application 
for charity. The money the society had spent in the good 
work of protecting honest, hard-working men aroused 
the higher nobler sentiments of helping those in want of 
the necessities of life and to intrust the German Society 
\.ith larger sums of money for practical dispensation 
among the poor of our city. In the years 1893- 1894 one 
of those periodical crisis or panics in the industrial life 
of our country set in. ^'actories closed or worked with 
diminished half force, house-building was at a stand- 
still, banks closed, many thousands of mechanics and 
workmen were out of employment and unusual heavy de- 
mands of those who were in need without any fault of 
their own were made upon the society. It was then that 



152 History of The 

our vice-president, Georoe W. Gail, g-enerou; v raised h's 
annual dues to $300 a year, payable in monthly instal- 
ments of $25 a month, to be distributed to five families 
to be selected by the executive committee; the workmen 
of Gail & Ax factory contributed $200; Anne Catherine 
Denhardt gave a legacy of $1,093.18; Mrs. Nannie Ax, 
^99 ; Unkel Brasig Verein, $25 ; A. C. Meyer, $20 ; 
Ladies' Bazaar, $614.54; Mrs. Nannie Ax, $132; Fred- 
trick Schepeler, $1,000, and some members raised their 
annual dues to $10, $20 and $25. The society in the 
crisis of 1893-94 distributed directly among the poor 
$12,911.25 in cash. The largest distribution by it ever 
made, it was among 85 widows with 314 children, 34 
widows without children, 78 families with 298 children, 
31 couples without children and 28 men, and mostly 
given in monthly payments. The employment office pro- 
cured positions for 342 farm hands, 20 mechanics and 31 
servant girls. 

At the meeting of October 8, 1894, Mr. Charles Weber, 
Jr., the treasurer, reported that the old record book of 
the society, covering the period beginning with the re- 
organization of the society, February 3, 181 7, at the 
meeting held in Kaminsky's tavern and ending with the 
quarterly meeting of the s.ociety, held in one of the rooms 
of the Germania Club October 22, i860, had been placed 
in care of the secretary of the society with instruction for 
safety against loss by fire, etc., to keep it in one of the 
vaults of the Hopkins Place Savings Bank. Ten years 
thereafter the great fire which consumed even the metal 
in the bank destroyed the book. On January 30, 1893, 
Frederick Schad resigned as agent and Mr. John D. 
Meyer was unanimously elected in his place at a salary 




GEORGE W. GAIL 



German Society of Maryland 153 

of $60 a month, which later was increased to $1,000 a 
year. During a sickness of the attorney, Colonel Tieck, 
Alexander H. Robertson, Esq., acting for Colonel Tieck, 
HI the name of the society succeeded in recovering for 
three German cattle shippers $70 for their return fare 
from Liverpool to Baltimore. 

In the spring of 1894 a number of German- American 
ladies formed a temporary organization and held a fair 
or bazaar in the first week of May at the Germania Maen- 
nerchor Hall, which netted the sum of $1,114.51. Six 
hundred and fourteen dollars and fifty-one cents whereof 
were paid as a donation to the society by Mr. Rother. 
who acted as treasurer of the bazaar. The balance of 
$500 was paid to "the Maryland General Hospital" in 
consideration of which the managers of the hospital 
agreed to establish and maintain in perpetuity one free 
bed, to be known as "the German Society Free Bed," for 
the accommodation of such persons as shall be recom- 
mended from time to time by "the president of the Ger- 
man Society of Maryland," or his legal representatives, 
for medical or surgical treatment. Ihis free bed with 
medical treatment has been and still is a great blessing to 
many poor women and men, who could not gain admit- 
tance to other hospitals of the city and m need of surgical 
or medical treatment. The kind and remarkable success- 
ful treatment they received at the hospital induced the 
society in the year 1902 to add another $500 donation to 
the hospital. The ladies who founded the free bed never 
did a more far-reaching act of beneficent charity. The 
applicant for this charity is first examined by the agent 
of the society as to his means, then by the physician of 
the society whether he needs hospital treatment, and then 



154 History of The 

recommended by the president of the society to admission 
in the hospital. Experience has shown that even hospi- 
tals are sometimes imposed upon by frauds well able to 
pay for their treatment. 

An invitation from the German Society of Pennsyl- 
vania to attend the banquet to be held in Philadelphia. 
December 26, 1894, to celebrate the one hundred and 
thirtieth anniversary of its existence was received aufl 
accepted. Messrs. L. P. Hennigihausen, Jacob Klein and 
Robert M. Rother were elected a delegation to represent 
the ]\Iaryland Society on the occasion. 

The suffering and hardship of tlie foreign oyster 
dredger continued to engage the attention and time of 
the ofificers, especially of F. W. Brune, H. C. Tieck ami 
Oscar Wolff, the attorneys of the society, the secretary 
being instructed to keep the society in communication 
with the other societies in this matter. 

A proposition in 1897 from the German Branch of the 
Young Men's Christian Association of Baltimore for the 
German Society to acquire the hall and building at No. 
1015 and 1017 East Baltimore street for the sum of 
Si 4,000 for a joint home was referred to a committee for 
a full investigation and consideration. The committee 
reported unfavorable and the report was adopted. The 
society in those years had been often invited to join in 
social, benevolent, political and other affairs and always 
declined, believing in the singleness of purpose as ex- 
pressed in its charter the only safe conduct. 

In February, 1899, the society elected the Hon. Karl 
Schurz an honorary member and sent him a letter of con- 
gratulation upon the anniversary of his seventieth birth- 
day. 



German Society of Maryland 155 

In 1895 the society received large donations from 
jihilanthroipists who were not inhabitants of the United 
States. Mr. Friedrich Schepeler. a resident of Mtinden, 
Hanover, Germany, had been a resident of Baltimore and 
a member of the German Society from 1846 to 1869, 
when he retnrned to- Germany. In the month of August, 
T894, a number of "the Baltimore Wecker," a weekly 
German newspaper, containing an interestinc^ historical 
sketch of the German Society of Maryland and of its 
recent activity, came to his hands and he called to his 
memory the meritorious humane work of the society. 
He, therefore, with bis wishes for the continuance of the 
good work of the society, sent a donation of $1,000. 

Mr. August Marquardt, a German merchant of Bremen, 
sojourning in the month of October, 1895, hi our city, 
on being informed by H. G. Hilken of the good work of 
cur society, sent a donation of $250. Both donations 
came through the house of "A. Schumacher & Company," 
the old steadfast friend of the society. 

In the meeting of April 12, 1897, the president reported 
tliat not one case of serious complaint of cruelty or other 
bad treatment of oyster dredgers had been reported iti 
the past winter, and that it was the voluntary expressed 
opinion of the United States commissioners and other 
officers connected with maritime jurisdiction that this was 
due entirely to tlie former vigorous efforts of the society 
in extending protection to the men by bringing the offend- 
ing captains of oyster dredging boats to justice and pun- 
ishment. Several cases of withiholding wages from 
dredgers were prosecuted and settled in the season of 
1898, but no case of cruel treatment reported. In 1898 
relief was extended by the society to 343 adults and 669 



156 History of The 

children. At the meeting of April 10, 1899, the death 
of Col. F. W. Brune, one of the counsellors of the society, 
was announced. He at great sacrifice of time and money 
had rendered great services for twenty-one years in fight- 
ing for the poor' and oppressed. His grandfather was 
one of the charter members, and his father, William F. 
Brune, held tlie office of counsellor of the society for more 
than thirty years, until his death in ^879. Both were 
eminent attorneys-at-law. 

At the October meeting of 1899 it was resolved that a 
committee of three be appointed by the president, wIid 
shall petition the next State legislature to have the report 
of the Labor Statistician translated into German and 
printed in pamphlet form for distribution among German 
emigrants. The president appointed Messrs. Ferdinand 
C. Latrobe, George W. Gail and Rev. Edward Huber on 
the committee. 

At the end of the year 1902 the membership by death, 
removal from the city and resignation having been ma- 
terially reduced, Mr. Gustav Siegmund, Robert M. 
Rother, L. P. Hennighausen, Ernst Schmeisser and other 
members made an effort to regain the loss, and on Janu- 
ary 12, 1903, nominated forty-four candidates as mem- 
bers. 

In October, 1904, Mr. Ernst Sander, a citizen of Leip- 
zig, Germany, sent a donation of Mk. 200 and was there- 
upon elected a member for hfe of the society, but he wrote 
for leave to become a regular member, and was unani- 
mously elected, and has since paid his dues by draft 
punctually ahead of the time when due. The society 
suffered severe loss during the next following years by 
the death of a number of highly esteemed, faithful old 



German Society of Maryland 157 

officers and benefactors and many kind words of sorrow, 
praise and eulogy to their memory are noted in the record 
book of the society. 

At the yearly meeting-, January 11, 1904, the president 
announced the recent death of the former president and 
kite vice-president, Mr. Claas Vocke. In 1842 he was 
elected secretaiy and for sixty-three years he continued 
to hold offices of trust and honor in the gift of the mem- 
bers of the society. 

On April 11, 1904, the death of George Brehm was 
announced; a generous member and contributor of large 
sums annually to the society. 

On October 16, 1905, on the death of Vice-President 
George William Gail, a special meeting was held by the 
officers and resolutions deploring his loss, etc., passed, 
Mr. Gail was not only the most liberal contributor, but 
also a very active officer and member. He was vice- 
president from 1892 to the time of his death, and remem- 
bered the society with a legacy of $2,000, 

In the following year, 1906, Mr. C. W. Schneidereith, 
smce 1893 second vice-president, and the four esteemed 
and active managers. Professor Otto Fuchs, Rev. Ed- 
v/ard Huber, Captain Henry Steffens and Captain Daniel 
Steenken, each of them after many years of faithful serv- 
ice in their office, departed this life. 

In 1906 Mr. Ed. Nieman, a retired merchant, for many 
years a member and from 1879 to 1890 treasurer of the 
society, died in Germany. Although a resident of Ger- 
many since 1890, he remained a steadfast member and 
in his last will gave the society a legacy of $2,500 and a 
share of the residue of his estate after the life estate of 
certain devisees had expired. 



158 History of The 

In 1907, Mr. Henry Lautz, vice-president, elected as 
successor of Mr. Georg-e W. Gail, deceased, and a gener- 
ous contributor, departed this life much lamented, remem- 
bering the society with a legacy of $1,000. 

On the 30th day of June, 1908, the society suffered 
another heavy loss in the death of its treasurer, Mr. 
Charles Weber, Jr. Mr. Weber retired from active busi- 
ness about or before the time he was elected treasurer in 
1890, and devoted most of his time to works of charity 
and therein especially to the care of the orphans and 
widows supported by the society, he also took an active 
part in the protection of the oyster dredgers. A special 
meeting of the board of officers was held. Appropriate 
resolutions deploring his death passed and Robert M. 
Rother elected temporary successor as treasurer. 

The bureau or office of the society was removed in 
1906 from No. 219 South Sharp street to the more con- 
venient location of 215 and 217 Courtland street, Mr. 
Samuel Siegael, a liberal contributor to the society, is 
the owner of the building and in his generous character, 
it being for charity, he let the office on the first floor with 
heating, cleaning, gas, etc., at the almost nominal rent of 
eight dollars a month. 




ROBERT M. ROTHER 



German Society of Maryland 159 



THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

Too much praise cannot be bestowed on the executive 
committee. The work of the committee requires experi- 
ence, patience, sound judgment and true disposition of 
charity and benevolence. Every person who is or has 
been active in the work of charity knows that imposition, 
knavery, deceit and fraud is largely practiced by persons, 
not in need or too lazy to w'ork, to obtain gifts of charity. 
It is sweet to obtain money without working for it. It is 
the duty of the executive committee to carefully examine 
and investigate every application for charity, so that not 
a dollar of the society is wasted on unworthy persons, the 
committee in its discretion orders victuals, groceries, 
wood, coal or cash to be given by the agent to the appli- 
cant, by an order on the treasurer. Messrs. Robert M. 
Rother, A. C. Meyer and Charles Weber, Jr., have since 
February loth, 1890, performed the arduous delicate 
duties as executive committee with the approval of the so- 
ciety. On the death of Mr. Weber, Mr. Herman Baden- 
hoop was appointed to fill his unexpired term. At the 
yearly meeting January nth, 1909, Mr. Badenhoop, for 
business reasons, declined the office, and John Hinricks 
was in his place appointed a member of the executive 
committee. Since Mr. Rother is chairman and to the 
year 1909, the executive committee has approved and is- 
sued 30,851 orders on the treasurer, for, and the treas- 
urer thereon has paid, by the agent $89,851.17 to worthy 
poor persons in need, largely to poor widows with infant 
children; it is a pleasure to record, that with this aid 



i6o HiSTOR\ OF The 

from the society, the children remained with tiieir 
mothers, and have grown up to good and useful citizens. 
We must not publish names and numbers, the books are 
open to members for verification. 



German Society of Maryland i6i 



BANQUETS. 

The social feature of a dinner at the annual meeting of 
tiie society appears to have been successfully established 
by the great banquet held on the 26th day of December, 
181 7, before the incorporation of the society, at Kamin- 
sky's Hotel on Water street; in 1820, at Mrs. Wintklos' 
Hotel on Water street, at twelve o'clock noon; in 1821, 
at Williamson's Hotel, thereafter and for many years at 
the Indian Queen Hotel, called Beltzhoover Hotel, south- 
east corner of Baltimore and Hanover streets, until 1832, 
when Beltzhoover removed to the Fountain Hotel on 
Light near Baltimore street, where the society then met. 
After the Eutaw House was opened the society under 
President Schumacher often held the banquets in its 
spacious rooms later and until the present time at the 
rooms of the Germania Club Under the presidency of 
Mr. Claas Vocke the annual banquet was suspended four 
years, but it was to the detriment of the popularity in 
membership, which then diminished to its lowest number. 
After due consideration, it was resolved under President 
Hennighausen to continue the annual banquet and many 
members have since been gained and enlisted in the cause 
of charity at these social gatherings, where always cheer- 
ful, even happy hours were spent. The consciousness of 
feeling that you were among men of generous, benevo- 
lent hearts, gentlemen by their very nature, so that not a 
word of discord ever marred these meetings, and they 
are looked forward to by former participants with antici- 
pation of having a good time. Every participant pays 



1 62 History of The 

for the dinner a moderate sum and orders whatever wine 
or mineral water he desires, at his own cost. The wines 
cut of the cellars of the club, noted for their quality and 
purity are furnished at a reasonable price. 

The entertainments begin with remarks by the presi- 
dent referring- to the good work of the society during the 
past year in helping the poor, assisting widows and or- 
phans, procuring work for the unemployed, fighting for 
the oppressed and reminding his hearers of the grand 
history of the society since its organization. Good 
music, by select musicians, German and English choruses, 
fine vocal and instrumental solos, intersperse the evening. 
The toasts are few, the Society, the United States of 
America, Our Old Fatherland, State of Maryland, City 
of Baltimore and Our Sister Societies, is the usual pro- 
gram. One of the most pleasant features of these ban- 
quets is the presence of the invited representatives of the 
Hibernian, the St. George's and the St. Andrew's So- 
cieties of Baltimore, representing resjDectively the Irish, 
English and Scotch nationalities. It is a time-honored 
custom from the earliest years of these societies, to be 
present at each others annual meetings and engenders a 
good fellowship and mutual esteem among the nationali- 
ties they represent, which cannot be valued too highly in 
our community. Whoever has attended these banquets 
will remember wath pleasure the eloquent words of sym- 
pathy and praise spoken by these gentlemen, which made 
us feel akin in noble sentiment and action in the field of 
charity. Our member, and always especially invited 
guest, ex-Mayor Ferdinand C. Latrobe. has for more thai 
twenty years, never failed to be present and by eloquent 
speech manifested his warm attachment to the society and 



German Society of Maryland 163 

his friends, that is to all the members thereof. The mayor 
of the city and the g-overnor of the State, when their 
duties permit them, are also honored and welcome guests. 
Short speeches, German and English spoken indiscrimi- 
nately, popular songs are sung ad Uhitiun, old friends re- 
new their acquaintances and good cheer prevails to the 
end. The climax of these banquets was the one hun- 
dred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the first organiza- 
tion of the society, held at the rooms of the German ia 
Club on the eighth day of January, 1909. Descendants 
of the founders and of the deceased members of the so- 
ciety were invited to participate. The rooms were filled 
to their seating capacity. The governor of the State, 
Austin L. Crothers; the mayor of the city, J. Barry 
Mahool ; Dr. J. C. Hexamer, the president of the German 
Society of Pennsylvania; Honorable Richard Barthold, 
member of congress from St. Louis, Missouri ; William 
P. Ryan, president of the Hibernian Society; Dr. George 
A. Fleming, vice-president of St. George's Society; B. P. 
Gillespie, vice-president St. Andrew's Society; Ferdinand 
C. Latrobe and the most prominent citizens of German 
descent and birth were present. After some introductory 
remarks by President Louis P. Hennighausen, Mr. Rob- 
ert M. Rother acted as toastmaster and called upon the 
Hon. Charles E. Heuisler, a judge of the Supreme Bench 
of Baltimore, to respond to the toast, "The German So- 
ciety." Judge Heuisler gave an interesting address on 
the history of the society, closing with a brilliant 
panegyric of the founders and members of past genera- 
tions. The second toast, "Our New Fatherland," was 
responded to by the eloquent orator, Hon. Ricliard Bar- 
thold in the German language. "The Old Fatherland." 



164 



History of The 



responded to by Mr. Henry Ruhstrar, the representative 
of the German consul, who was absent in Germany, ki 
fitting words, was loudly applauded. Governor Crothers 
responded for the "State of Maryland" and Mayor Ma- 
hool for "The City of Baltimore." Dr. Charles E. Hexa- 
mer made a stirring address in response to the toast ot 
"Our Guests." The representatives of our sister societies 
spoke well in cheerful words, especially our old friend. 
William P. Ryan, of the Hibernian, who so often has 
delighted us by his masterful sweet diction and historic 
lore of the early intercourse between the Irish and Ger- 
mans and their common bonds. The banquet, which 
w^as in every way a great success, ended by singing : 

Should Auld Acquaintance Be I'orgot, etc. 



German Society of Maryland 165 

REPORT OF THE TREASURER OF THE SOCIETY. 
MR. ROBERT M. ROTHER. 

JANUARY, 1509. 

Balance, January ist, 1908 $2,076.25 

Receipts. 

Ground rents $3,601.08 

Donations 162.OU 

Bequests 1,100.00 

Members' dues i ,580.00 

Interest 35-62 

6,478.70 



Disbursements. 

Cash assistance for 1563 orders $5,639.60 

Office Rent and Expenses 217.15 

Advertising 



5,554-95 



Printing and Stationery. 

Salary of Agent 1,000.00 

Fee to Agent for collecting members' dues 79.CO 

Sundries 15-24 

Invested in ground rent 950.00 

8,054.34 

Balance, January ist, 1909 $ 500.61 

Investments of the Society. 
Irredeemable ground rents, $2,121.08 per year. 
Ground rents redeemable, at 4%, $930.00 per year. 
Ground rents redeemable, at 6%, $570.00 per year. 

Robert M. Rother, Treasurer. 

The undersigned have carefully examined the books and vouchers 
of the Treasurer and of the Agent of the German Society of Mary- 
land and also the securities as stated above and found the same cor- 
rect. 

George Buchheister, 1 

L. H. WiEM.\N, I Auditing Committee. 

A. Obst. I 

January 22, 1909. 



1 66 History of The 



FROM THE REPORT OF THE AGENT OF THE SOCIETY, 

MR. JOHN D. MEYER. 

The payments for relief to the poor were made in the following 
manner: 

Jannary on 133 orders $469.60 

February " 136 " 49^-35 

March " 130 " 461.50 

April " 130 " 468.50 

May " 130 " 45150 

June " 126 " 44550 

July " 129 " 44650 

August " 127 " 457-50 

September " 123 " 447-00 

October " 131 " 477-90 

November " 134 " 494.25 

December " 134 " 522.50 



1563 $5,63460 

Included in the above are 208 orders for groceries and 
provisions, 47 for coal and wood, 2 for shoes, for i fare to 
Germany, 5 for fare to Philadelphia, i for fare to Wash- 
ington. 

Relief was extended to 30 families with it6 children, 
and 129 widows with 522 children; 12 married couples and 
12 widows without children, and 25 men ; in all 250 adults 
and 638 children. 

64 new applications for relief were made at our office, 
all of which were carefully investigated and considered by 
our Executive Committee. In i case false address was 
given and the parties could not be found; in 3 cases it was 
found that the applicants were not entitled to our assist- 



German Society of Maryland 167 

ance, and in 60 cases relief was given according to the needs 
of the appHcant as far as our means would permit. 

330 visits were made during the year to parties whom 
we regularly assist, and in 14 of these cases assistance was 
discontinued; 8 of our regular pensioners died. 

A number of men seeking employment were referred to 
persons who applied for help. 



1 68 



History of The 



DONATIONS AND BEQUESTS. 



1817 to 1852. 

Christian Mayer $50.00 

A. J. Schwartze 50.00 

Michael Hummer 50.00 

Frederick Koenig 50.00 

F. L. E. Amelung 50.00 

B. I. Von Kapf 50.00 

Solomon Etting 50.00 

Henry Keerl 25.00 

F. W. Brune 50.00 

P. Arn. Karthaus 50.00 

I. I. Kohen, Jr 50.00 

Charles Schaefer 20.00 

Lewis Mayer 20.00 

Christian Keller 50.00 

Jere Sullivan 50.00 

Lewis Brautz 50.CO 

Justus Hoppe 50.00 

H. D. Witelhausen 50.00 

Frederick Hammer 50.00 

August Hammer 20.00 

Lawrence Thompstn 20.00 

C. S. Konig 20.00 

John I loffman 50.00 

George Hoffman 50.00 

Peter Hoffman 50.00 

John Strieker 50.00 

Henry Messonnicr 50.00 

Conrad Schultz 50.00 

Philip R. J. Friese 50.00 

John F. Friese 50.CO 

Charles Bohn 50.00 

James Luber 50.00 

Frederick Waesche 50.00 



Meta Repold 50.09 

Henry Schneider 50.00 

Nicholas Popplein 50.CO 

Sepe Eichelberger 30.00 

L. Eichelberger 20.C0 

Frederick C. Graf 50.00 

C. L. Weiskopff 20.00 



1853. 
Oelrichs & Lurman. 

1854. 
Fred Chr. Delius. . 



.$136.00 



$50.00 



1864. 



D. H. Meyer $50.00 

1872. 
Albert Schumacher. . . $10,000.00 

1877. 

Herm. Von KapfT $50.00 

G. W. Gail 50.00 

Christian Ax 50.00 

J. D. Kremelberrj 5000 

H. Arens 25.CO 

L. W. Gunther 25.00 

Wm. Seemullcr 25.00 

John R. Seemulkr 25.00 

Aug. Vogeler 25.00 

Geo. A. Von Lingen 25.00 

C A. Von Lingen 25.00 

Robert Lehr 20.00 

1890. 
From 4 oyster dredgers.. . $3500 



German Society of Maryland 169 

1892. Mrs Nannie Ax 132.CO 

Auguste Holzemer $182,60 G. W. Gail 300x0 

Friend through H. G. H. 25.00 1898. 

1893. A. S. Abeil Co $150.00 

Unkel Braesig Verein. . . .$ 25.00 George Brehm 100.00 

j^ 5200 Mrs. Nannie Ax 132.00 

S. 20.00 G. W. Gail 300.00 

L. P. Hennighausen 45.00 Herman Seibert 60.00 

Gail & Ax workmen 200.00 Johann Fr. Zetzener 653.35 

James Scott 50.00 Marie Gundel 200.00 

Anna Cath. Denhardt 1093.18 1899. 

G- W. Gail 7500 A s ^^^,1 (3q ^j^OQQ 

Mrs Nannie Ax 99-00 Louis & Chas. E. Dohme. 25.00 

1894. ^- ^- ^°" Lingen 100.00 

A. C. Meyer $ 20.00 ^- ^- H''^^^" SO.oo 

Ladies' Bazar 614.51 ^enry Lauts 50.00 

Perpetual Bed in Mary- Geqrge Brehm 200.00 

land General Hospital M'"^- Dannie Ax 182.00 

through Ladies' Bazar, G. W. Gail 300.00 

(.Qgj- COO 00 ^' ^' Hobelman 50.00 

Mrs. Nannie Ax 132.00 Herman Seibert 60.00 

G. W. Gail 300.00 Cash.... 5.00 

Celebration of German 

^^95- Day 160.14 

Frederick Schepeler $1000.00 

A. C. Meyer 20.00 

August Marquardt 250.00 A. S. Abell Co $150.00 

Mrs. Nannie Ax 132.00 George Brehm 200.00 

G. W. Gail 300.00 ^^'■^- Nannie Ax 132.00 

G. W. Gail 300.00 

^°90. Herman Seibert 60.00 



Miss Nannie Ajc $132.00 

G. W. Gail 300.00 



1901. 

A. S. Abel! Co $150.00 

1897- George Brehm 200.00 

George Brehm $20.00 Mrs. Nannie Ax 132.00 

Baltimore Charter Cen- G. W. Gail 300.00 

nial Committee 141.00 Herman Seibert 100.00 



170 History of The 

Mrs. Mary D. Appell.... 500.00 a. S. Abell Co 100 00 

^''^'- ^^'^ 390.00 Hessen-Darmst-Verein .. 12.50 

"^^- G.W.Gail S^^"^ 

George Brehm $400.00 ' 300.oo 

Christian & Marie Ax.... 132.00 Christian & Marie Ax... 132,00 

G.W.Gail 300.00 J°'"^ m<±Q\ 6.00 

Herman Seibert 3^0^ Mrs. Fr. Sachs 3.00 

Henry Kynast 5.00 

1903. 

A. S. Abell Co $150.00 ^^^■ 

George Brehm 200.00 George Gunther $100.00 

Christian & Marie Ax 132.00 Conrad Reinhold 200.00 

G. W. Gail 300.00 A. S. Abell Co 100.00 

Herman Seibert 60.00 J. Fredr. Wiessner 200.00 

Henry Schwarz 10.00 Gottlieb Stiebrrtz 500.00 

Cash 5.00 Christian & Marie Ax ... . 132.00 

Drayton M. Hite 300 j^^^ 

^904- Mrs. Rosina Sinsz $ 100.00 

A. S. Abell Co $150.00 Christian & Marie Ax.... 132.00 

Christian & Marie Ax 132.00 Eberhard Niemann 2500.00 

G. W. Gail 300.00 Henry Lants 1000.00 

Samuel Siegael 5.00 

Hessen-Darmst-Verein . . 12.50 

Ernst Sander (Leipzig).. 47.37 John C Scherer $100.00 

Mrs. Anna M. Reier 100.00 Donations 162.00 

Christian & Marie Ax.... 132.00 

^^°^" Unknown through Aug. 

Independent Citizens' Hassfurtier 20.00 

Union 12000 Geo. Bunnecke 5.00 

Samuel Siegael 10.00 St. Matthew's Congreg... 5.00 



German Society of Maryland 171 



LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE GERMAN SOCIETY OF 
MARYLAND. 

FIRST ORGANIZED 1783. 

Records Lost to 181 7. 

President — Karl Friedrich Wiesenthal, 1783. 
Secretary — John Conrad Zollickoffer, 1784. 
Physician — Dr. William Zollikoffer, 1783. 

MEMBERS. 
Christian Mayer, 1784 (List of Members Lost.) 

List of Officers and Members of German Society of Maryland, at 
the time of its Incorporation, 1817. Printed in Baltimore 1817 by 
Schaefifer & Maund. 

OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY. 
Elected in March, 181 7. 

President Christian Mayer. 

First Vice-President Dr. Aug. J. Schwartze. 

Second Vice-President B. J. Von Kapff. 

Third Vice-President Henry Schroeder. 

Fourth Vice-President John Stricker. 

Counselloi«s \ ^^^id Hoffman. 

( William Frick. 

T,. . . ( Dr. J. G. Wolff, 

Physicians -J 

( Dr. Jacob Baer. 

Treasurer Frederick Waesche. 

Secretary of the Society Lewis Mayer. 

Secretary of the Officers Lawr. Tiiomsen. 



172 



History of The 



Managers. 



Justus Hoppe, 
Lewis Brantz, 
Conrad Schultz, 
Jacob Small, 
William Krebs, 
F. L. E. Amelung, 



Albers, Solomon G. 
Amelung, John P. W. 
Bader, Dominick. 
EvERS, F. G. 
EwALDT, John H. 
FahSj Casper. 
Baker, John H. 
Baker, Joseph. 
Baker, George S. 
Baker, Samuel. 
Baker, William. 
Becker, Simon. 
Berger, John. 
Bern hart, H. 
Boehm, Charles G. 
BoHM, Charles. 
BosE, William. 
Brune, F. W. 
Brune, John L. 
Capito. Christian. 
Cohen, Junr. J. J. 
Dannemann, C. H. 
Delius, George. 
Diffenderfer, Chas. 
Diffenderfer, Michl. 
DoNSEE, Leopold. 
DuNTZE, George. 
Eckel, Philip P. 



John Frick, 
John F. Friese, 
Samuel Keerl, 
Peter Sauerwein, 
Michael Kimmel, 
Jesse Eichelberger. 



Members. 

Eichelberger, L. 
Etting, Solomon. 
Karthaus, Peter A. 
Karthaus, Charles 

W. 
Keerl, Henry. 
Keerl, John C. 
Keerl, Joshua S. 
Keerl, George H. 
Keller, Christian. 
Konig, Frederick. 
KONIG, C. S. 
Frailey, Leonard. 
Frick, Peter. 
Friese, Philip R. J. 
Ghequiere, Charles. 
Glattus, Peter. 
Graf, Frederick C. 
Grass, John J. 
Gross, Johannes. 
GuiLDENER, Charles. 
Hacter, Gottlieb. 
Hammer, Frederick. 
Hammer, August. 
Hasily, Samuel. 
Hedrick, Thomas. 
Henck, F. W. 
Hertzog, J. F. 



Hoffman, John. 
Hoffman George. 
Hoffman, Peter. 
Horn, Philip. 
HuRXTHAL, Benjamin 
Hurxthal, Ferdinand 
HuRXTHAL, Lewis. 
Ingden, Peter. 
Proebsting, Theodor. 

C. 
Ratien, Richard. 
Readel, John D. 
Refold, Metta. 
RoHR, Andrew. 
Rothrock, John, 
rudenstein, john m. 
Sadtler, Philip B 
Sauerwein, Junr. 

Peter. 
Konig, Henry. 
Krafft, J. P. 
Kraber, Daniel. 
Krieg, Frederick. 
Labes, James. 
Leypold, Frederick. 
Lindenberger, Jacob. 
LiTTiG, Philip. 
Macker, Benjamin. 



German Society of Maryland 



173 



■\Iedtart, Joshua. 
Meeth, Philip. 
Meinecke, C. 
Miller, Christopher. 
]\Iyers, Jacob. 
Myers, George. 
Myers, Samuel. 
Nenninger, B. 
Nenninger, John. 
PoEPPLEiN, Nicholas. 
SuHR, Jacob. 
Thomae, Huilfreich. 
Thomas, D. L. 
Uhler, Philip. 
Vibrans, William. 



Vickers, Joel. 
Wall, Jacob. 
Warner, George. 
Schaefer, Christian. 
Schabjter, Frederick, 
schaeffer, f. g. 
Schley, Jacob. 
Schminke, George. 
Schmidt, William L. 
Schroder, Jr., Henry. 
Schroeder, William. 
Schroeder, Charles. 
Schultze, J. E. C, 
Sellers, Abraham. 
SiGMOND, John Peter. 



Spies, John P. 
Starck, George. 
Steinback, John C. 
Stouffer, John. 
Strischka, Joseph. 
Sullivan, Jeremiah. 
Sultzer, Sebastian. 
Warner, Michael. 
Warner, William. 
Weise, a. 
Werdebaugh, John. 
Wichelhausen, H. D. 
Wichelhausen, Jacob. 
Woehlers, Charles. 



The above named 149 members subscribed the Constitution and 
By-Laws of the Society in 1817. 



174 



History of The 



LIST OF OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY. 



Years. Presidents. 

1783 to Dr. Charles F. Wiesenthal 2 years. 

1817 to 1821 Christian Mayer 4 years. 

1821 to 1833 Justus Hoppe 12 years. 

1833 to 1841 Urias W. Karthaus 8 years. 

1841 to 1872 Albert Schumacher 31 years. 

1872 to 1879 Hermann von Kapff 7 years. 

1879 to 1887 Claas Vocke 8 years. 

1887 to Louis T. Hennighausen 

Vice-Presidents. 

1817-1822 B. J. VoN Kapff. 1869-1872 Christian Ax. 

1817-1827 Gen'l. John Stricker. 1870-1871 ) ^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ 

1817-1826 Dr. Aug. J. Schwartz. 1879-1887 ) 

1817-1822 Heinrich Schroeder. 1877-1878 Wm. Seemitller. 

1822-1861 F. W. Brune, Sr. 1879-1883 Jacob Furst. 

1822-1830 John Hoffman. 1883-1887 Hy. Wilkins. 

1820-1840 Solomon Etting. 1887-1893 Fredk. Wehr. 

1826-1829 Jacob Small. 1887-1893 P. L. Keyser. 

1830-1833 Claas W. Karthaus. 1888-1902 Claas Vocke. 

1830-1841 Samuel Keel. 1889-1893 Fredk. Raine. 

1833-1859 Charles G. Boehm. 1892-1906 Geo. W. Gail. 

1830-1846 I ^ ,,. T -.^CT ^^93-1894 Ernst Knabe 

■^ ^ f GUSTAV W. LuRMAN. - ^ r^ \\T c ,. ^, ^,^,, 

1860-1867 > 1894-1906 C. W. Schneidereitii. 

1840-1845 Chas. F. Mayer. 1895-1906 H. H. Hobelman. 

1846-1852 Dr. a. Wegner. 1903 H. G. Hilken. 

1846-1853 F. L. Braun. 1905-1908 Henry Lants. 

1851-1879 Chas. W. Lentz. 1906 Geo. Bunnecke. 

1859-1877 Justus Bruehl. 1906 Louis T. Dieterich. 

1861-1889 Wm. Numsen. 1907 Jacob Klein. 

1867-1869 Charles Spilker. 



German Society of Maryland 175 

Tkeasurers. 

1817-1825 Frederick Waesche. 1890-July 1908 Chas. Weber, Jr. 

1825- 1845 Ben J. J. Cohen. 1908-July to January Robert M. 
1845-1877 Israel Cohen. Rother, Pro Tern. 

1877-1879 Jno R. Seemuller. 1909 Conrad C. Rabbe. 

1879-1890 Edw. Niemann. 

Secretaries. 

1817-1822 Lewis Mayer. 1852-1856 G. H. Spilker. 

1817-1820 Lawrence Thomson. 1853-1870 H. Von Kapff. 

1818 Wm. Frick. 1856-1865 D. H. Meier. 

1821-1824 Henry G. Jacobson. 1865-1873 Geo. A. Von Lingen. 

1824 B. J. Cohen. 1870-1874 LL Wilkens. 

1825 J. C. Dants. 1874-1887 J. C. Wilkens. 

1826-1829 Fredk. L. Brauns. 1874-1887 H. G. Hilken. 

1829-1833 Chas. Starke. 1887-1888 John Hinrichs. 

1832-1840 Fredk. Focke. 1887-1894 J. H. Middendorf. 

1833-1843 Chas. Spilker. 1888- 1899 R. M. Rother. 

1843-1853 Claas Vocke. 1894-1896 M. Meyerdirck. 

1841-1849 Charles W. Lentz. 1896 Herman Knollenderg. 

1846-1852 Geo. Sander. 1899 H. Ruhstrat. 

Counsellors. 

1817-1832 William Frick, Esq. 1885-1887 L. P. Hennighausen, 
1817-1835 David Hoffman, Esq. Esq. 

1819-1820 J. R. Cruse, Esq. 1888-1896 Heinrich C. Tieck. 
1821-1838 Chas. F. Mayer, Esq. Esq. 

1835-1882 F. W. Brune, Esq. 1892 Oscar Wolff, Esq. 

1838-1843 Brantz Mayer. Esq. igoo-1907 J. Frederick Re- 

1843-1896 Wm. F. Frick, Esq. quardt, Esq. 

1875-1881 Alexander Wolff, 1907— — Christ. R. Watten- 

Esq. scheidt, Esq. 

1883- 1900 F. W. Brune, Esq. 

Physicians. 

1784 Dr. Karl Fredrick 1817-1818 Dr. Jacob Baer. 

Wiesenthal. 1818-1826 Dr. Edw. Schwarz. 

1785 Dr. VVm. Zolltkoffer. 1818-1823 Dr. Edw. Huttner. 

1817-1818 Dr. John G. Wolff. 1822-1826 Dr. J. Frick. 



176 



History of The 



1 826- 1 830 Dr. a. Wegner. 
1826- 1830 Dr. Joshua J. Cohen. 
1 830- 1 832 Dr. Wm. Keerl. 
18301845 Dr. F. E. B. Hintze. 
1 832-1841 Dr Edward Schwartze 
1839-1841 Dr. a. J. Schwartze. 
1841-1883 Dr. Henry Albers. 
1841-1844 Dr. Schurman. 
1846-1848 Dr. J. A. Benke. 
1848-1850 Dr. E. a. Hamel. 
1850-1852 Dr. L. Morawitz. 
1 853- 1854 Dr. Ziering. 
1854-1869 Dr. Friedhoefer. 
1869-1876 Dr. F. Hesel. 
1869-1876 Dr. C. F. Heuser. 



1873- 1891 Dr. Carl Hoffman. 

1876-1883 Dr. L. C. Winternitz 

1876-1883 Dr. H. Salzer. 

1880-1888 Dr. a. Mathieu. 

1883-1891 Henry Gombel. 

1883-1893 Dr. Adolph Boehm. 

1888-1895 Dr. a. V. GoswEiLER. 

1 893- 1895 Dr. W. Henschel. 

1893-1898 Dr. John C. Hem- 
meter. 

1896 Dr. Chas. H. a. 

Meyer. 

1905 Dr. Fredk. W. Hobel- 

mann. 



Managers. 



1817 
1818 
1858 
1874 
1876 
1888 
1889 
1818 
1830 
1830 
1836 
1841 
1842 
1851 
1853 
1884 
1884 



1893 
1898 



F. L. E. Amelung. 
Frederick Amelung. 
Christian Ax. 
Frederick Arras. 
Henry Arens. 
John Albaugh. 
John B. Adt. 
Louis Brantz. 
F. L. Brauns. 
Arias G. Boehm. 
Matthias Benzinger. 
F. Bredemeyer. 
Justus Bruehl. 
A. Brede. 
Charles Bulling. 
Charles A. Brack. 
George Bauernsciimidt. 
Charles Bein. 
Geo. Wm. Becker. 
George Bunnecke. 
George Brehm. 



1901 Edmund Bruenning. 

1905 Herman Badenhoop. 

1906 G. H. Blank. 
1822 Benj. J. Cohen. 
1840 J. J. Cohen, Jr. 
1846 Charles Caspari. 

1854 William Caspari. 

1855 Herman Classen. 

1874 M. G. Cohen. 

1818 Chas. Diffenderfer. 
1826 C. H. Danneman. 

1846 Chas. Degenhardt. 

1847 Christian Deerke. 
1852 G. C. Deerke. 
1868 TjARKS Deetjen. 
1901 Louis P. Dietrich. 
1903 Charles E. Dohme. 
1818 Philip Eckel. 

1846 John Eschbach. 

1875 Fred. Ellenbrock. 
1817 John F. Friese. 



German Society of Maryland 



177 



1821 
1827 
[838 
[847 
1871 
1877 
1880 
[890 

1893 
1841 
1880 
1894 
1897 
1907 
1817 
!i8 
1822 
1827 
[827 
1828 
1829 
1833 
1837 
1841 

1847 



1874 
1874 
1888 
[888 
1890 
1890 
1892 
[906 
[909 
1893 
1817 



Wm. Frick. 
Aras Fischer. 
Fredk. Focke. 
Geo. N. Fischer. 
John Friedrich. 
Emil Fischer. 
Joseph Friedenwald. 
Prof. Otto Fuchs. 
Fred. W. Feldner. 
F. B. Graf. 
H. H. Graue. 
Edwd C. Geyer. 

F. H. Ganter. 
William Grecht. 
Justus Hoppe. 
August Hammer. 
David Hoffman. 
Dr. F. E. B. Hintze. 
C. A. Heineken. 

B. Hurschthal. 
J. J. Hoogewerf. 
Wm. Hillberg. 
H. R. Hoffmeister. 
H. C. Huene. 

G. H. HllENICHEN. 

H. Hausenwald. 
Ferdinand Hassencamp. 
John Hem meter. 
H. Hasenbalg. 
H. H. Hobelmann. 
Jacob Hecht. 
Chas. Hilgenberg. 
H. G. Hilken. 
Rev. Edward Huber. 
Rev. Julius Hofmann. 
John Hinrichs. 
Henry Joesting. 
William Krebs, 



1817 Samuel Keerl. 

1817 Michael Kimmel. 
1821 Chas. W. Karthaus. 
1825 J. P. Krafft. 

1828 Edward Kurtz. 
1830 Fredk. Koenig. 

1839 C. Kretzer. 
1843 John T. Kall. 
1852 Wm. Knabe. 
i8.q.^ H. Kochling. 
1856 Aug. Koehler. 
1874 Ernst Knabe. 
1874 J. G. Koppelman. 

1877 P- L. Keyser. 
1884 Henry Knefely. 
1891 William Koch. 
1893 Jacob Klein. 
1899 Ernst Knabe, Jr. 
1901 Arnold Kummer. 

1818 Fredk. Leypold. 
1837 C. Lindeman. 
1848 Wm. Lamping. 

1878 Gebhard Leimbach. 
1887 Christopk. Lipps. 
1891 Henry Lants. 

1840 Gen'l. Joshua Medtardt. 

1841 G. H. Mittnacht. 
1841 Aug. Miller. 

1843 J. K. Mesersmith. 
1887 John Meeth. 
1889 A. C. Meyer. 

1895 J. Wm. Middendorf. 

1896 Charles J. Marburg. 
1898 Fredk. J. Mayer. 
1906 Wm. Meissel. 

1840 William Numsen. 
1856 Charles Nitze. 
1878 Fredk. Oelman. 



178 



History of The 



1829 C. G. Peters. 


1873 


1854 Dietrich Pralle. 


187s 


1906 Max Quitt. 


1888 


1852 Fr. Uhtoff. 


1890 


1877 F- W. Ulrich. 


1891 


1825 Henry Roderwald. 


1891 


1867 Jacob Rudolph. 


1899 


1898 Henry Ruhstrat. 


1906 


1899 Robert M. Rother. 


1909 


1817 Conrad Schulz. 


1856 


1817 Jacob Small. 


1869 


1817 Peter Sauerwein. 


1874 


1818 Henry Schroeder. 


1832 


1 82 1 Philip D. Sadtler. 


1846 


1821 Fredk. G. Schaefer. 


1850 


1827 Peter Sauerwein, Jr. 


1853 


1827 C. A. Schaefer. 


1888 


1833 Albert Schumacher. 


1841 


1833 John P. Stroble. 


1878 


1836 Chas. W. Spilker. 


1887 


1848 E. Schoening. 


1888 


1849 A. Semuller. 


1895 


1859 Jacob Seeger. 


1896 


1862 Alex. H. Schulz. 


1898 


1872 Chris. Schmidt. 


1903 


1872 John Stellman. 


1888 



Capt. Henry Steffens. 
Fr. Schad. 

Chas. W. Schneidereith. 
GusTAV Siegmund. 
Ernst Schmeisser. 
Henry Schwarz. 
Capt. Daniel Steenken. 
Frank Steil. 
Louis C. Schneidereith. 
Adam Treusch. 
Jacob Trust. 
Chas. Thienemann 
Geo. a. Van Spreckelen. 
A. H. Von Post. 
Herm. Von. Kappf. 
Aug. Vogeler. 
Henry Vees. 
August Wegner. 
Frederick Wehr. 
Charles Weber, Jr. 
Fredk. Walpert. 
Rudolph Wattenscheidt. 
J. Fredk. Wiessner. 
Paul Weilbacher. 
Edw. Wishmeyer. 
Conrad Zeul. 



German Society of Maryland 



1/9 



LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE GERMAN SOCIETY OF 
MARYLAND. 

Since Its Commencement. 

Printed by John T. Hanzsche in Baltimore, 1851. 

Members Deceased or Resigned. 



LIFE. 

Amelung, F. L. E. 
BoHN, Charles. 
Brantz, Charles. 
Friese, John F. 
Etting, Solomon. 
Graff, Frederick. 
Hammer, Frederick. 
Hoffmann, George. 
Hoffmann, J. 
Hoffmann, Peter. 
HopPE, Justus. 
Kapff, B. J. VoN. 
Karthaus, p. a. 
Keller, Christ. 
KiMMEL, Michael. 
Mayer, Christian. 
Labes, James. 
Messonier, H. 
Refold, Metta. 
Schroeder, H. 
ScHULTZ, Conrad. 
Schwartze, a. J. 
Stricker, John. 
Sullivan, J. 
Waesche, Fred. 
Wichelhausen, H. D. 



Albers, S. G. 
Albert, Jacob. 
Amelung, J. P. W. 
Amelung, Ant. 
Bader, Dominik. 
Baer, Jacob, M. D. 
Baker, Joseph. 
Baker, John H. 
Baker, Samuel. 
Baker, William. 
Baltzell, Chs. 
Baltzell, Emil. 
Baltzell, Alex. 
Baltzell, Jacob. 
Baltzell, Philip. 
Baltzell, Thom. 
Baltzell, William. 
Beck, Thomas. 
Becker, Dietrich. 
Becker, Siemon. 
Bechtel, John P. 
Beltz hoover, Geo. 
Berger, John. 
Bernhardt, H. 
Bersch, Henry. 
Boeninger, Arnold. 
Boeninger, Gustav. 



Bolte, John. 
Bose, William. 
Boeving, Gustav. 
Boeving, G. a. 
Bredemeyer, Fr. 
Capito, Christian. 
Carstaryen, E. 
Cohen, Jos. I., M. D. 
Cohen, B. J. 
Cohen, David I. 
Dannemann, C. H. 
Dannenberg, F. R. 
Deems, Jacob. 
Delevie, Solomojst. 
Delins, F. C. 
Delins, George. 
DiELMAN, Henry. 
Diffenderffer, Chas. 
Diffenderffer, Mich. 
DoNSEE, Leop. 
Drege, Jacob R. 
Droege, John. 
DuNTE, John C. 
DuNTZE, George. 
Durst, Fredk. 
Dyer, Leon. 
Dyer, John M. 



i8o 



HiSTCRY OF The 



EcKARDT, John. 
Eckel, Chas. F. 
Eckel, Ph. N. 

ElCHELBERGER, G. S. 
ElCHELBERGER, JeSSE. 
ElCHELBERGER, L. 
Entze, J. F. 
Etting, Samuel. 
Etting, B. J. 
EvERS, F. G. 
EwALT, John H. 
Falis, Casper. 
Fisher, Chs. 
Fischer, Chs. W. 
Fischer, G. N. 
FOCKE, C. W. 
FocKE, Fredk. 
Frailey, L. 
Pkey, John. 
Frick, Peter. 
Frick, John. 
Frick, William. 
Garbade, Gebh. 
Gelbach, C. 
Gebhardt, C. E. 
Ghequiere, Chs. 
GiESE, L. W. H. 

GrONIG, RUDOLFii, 

Gross, John. 
Gross, John S. 
gudervill, h. 

GuLDENER, CilAS. 

Halvern, E. 
Hamel, M. D. 
Hammer, Auo. 
Hammer, Gottfrt. 
Harjes, F. H. 
Harman, John. 



Hartwig, John H. 
Hasley, Sam'l. 
Hedrick, Thomas. 
Heineken, C. a. 
Henk, F. W. 
Henning, Thomas. 
Hertzog, J. F. 

HiLLBERG, Wm. 

Hill, J. H. 

HiNTZE, F. E. B., M. 

D. 
HiSKY, Joseph. 
HoFF, John M. 
Hoffmann, Dav. 
HoLLEN, Christian 

Von. 
holzerman, j. 
Hoogewerff, J. P. 
Hoover, F. 
HoppE, H. 
Horn, Phil. 
HoRTON, James. 
HuxtahLj Benj. 
Huxtahl, Fredk. 
Huxtahl, Lewis. 
HusTER, Gottlieb. 
Kall, John T. 
Karthaus, a. W. 
Karthaus, P. a. 
Kaylor, George. 
Keener, David. 
Keener, Christian. 
Keerl, Henry. 
Keerl, Wm., M. D. 
Keerl, John C. 
Keerl, Samuel. 
Keerl, Geo. II. 
Keerl, Joshua. 



Keyser, G. 
Keyser, Chs. M. 
Klein, E. F. 
Klein, Frederick. 
Knorre, Chs. 
Koch, Fred. 
Kochler, Geo. 
Konig, C. H. 
Konig, Henry. 

KOSTER, A. 
KOSTER, D. 

Kraber, Danl. 
Krafft, Charles L. 
Krafft, J. P. 
Krail, John G. 
Krebs, Geo W. 
Krebs, William. 
Kretzer, C. 
Krieg, Fredk. 
KuESTER, Chs. L. 
Kuester, Ernst. 
Leypold, Fr. 
Leypold, F. W. 
Lewis. 

Lightner, Isaac. 
Limmer. G. 
Lindenberger, Jacob. 
Lindhorn, Henry. 
LiTTiG, Philip. 
Macker, Benj. 
Marquardt, H. 
Maul, Geo. N. 
Maund, Thomas. 
Mayer, Lewis. 
Medtart, Joshua. 
Meineke, C. 
Mettinger, C. a, 
Mettinger, Gottlieb. 



German Society of Maryland 



i«i 



MoTz, D. 
Mueller, Aug. 
Mueller, Christ. 
MuNDER, Chas. F. 

MUNKS, A. 

MuTH, Philip. 
Myers, Geo. 
Myers, Jacob. 
Myers, Samuel. 
Nenninger, John. 
Nenninger, B. 
Oelrichs, E. G. 
OoLO, L. 
Peters, C. G. 
Petri, J. F. 
Post, A. H. Von. 
Proebsting, Th. C. 
Ratien, Richard. 
Rau, J. C. 
Readel, John D. 
Reckers, G. J. 
Rfppart, Geo. 
Reppart, John. 
Rodewald, Fredk, 
RoDEWALD, Henry. 
Rodewald, William. 
RoHR, Andrew. 
Romyn, J. H. 
RoTHROCK, John. 
Rudenstein, J. M. 
Sadtler, Philip B. 
Sauerhoff, John. 
Sauerwein, Peter. 
Sauerwein, Peter, Jr. 
Schabfer, Christ. 
ScHAEFER, Fredk. 
Schaefer, F. C. 
ScHETTER, Fredk. 



Schley, Jacob. 
Schmidt, A. 
Schmidt, Wm. L. 
ScHMiNKE, George, 
schoening, e. 
Schroeder, Wm. 
Schroeder, Chas. 
Schroeder, H., Jr. 
schultze, j. e. c. 
ScHULTz, Jefferson. 
Schwartz, E. F.,M. D. 
Schwartz, Julius. 
Seeger, Jacob. 
Seekamp, Albert. 
Sellers, Abraham. 
Seltzer, Adam. 
Siegmund, John P. 
Silver, Lewis. 
Slingluff, Charles. 
Small, Jacob. 
Small, Wm. F. 
Smith, Nicolas. 
Snyder, Joseph. 
Snyder, Peter. 
Stopfer, John. 
Spicer, John P. 
SuHR, Jacob. 
Super, John. 
SuLTZER, Sebastian, 
Starcke, Charles, 
Stark, Geo. 
Steinbeck, John C, 
Stricker, John. 
Stritschka, J. A. 
Strubberg, S. a. 
Struthhoff, Barney. 
Thomae, Geo. 
Thomae, H. 



Thomas, D. L. 
Thomson, Lawr. 
Turner, Geo. N. 
Uhler, Philip. 
Vernunft, Theodor. 
Vibrans, Wm. 
VicKERS, Joel. 
Wall, Jacob. 
Wernecken, J. D. 
Warner, Geo. 
Warner, Michael, 
Warner, William. 
Weis, John. 
Weise, a. 
Weiskopff, C. L. 
Werdebaugh, John. 
Westphal. 

Wichelhausen, Jacob. 
Will, Chas. F. 
Winkler, John. 
Wochlers, Christ. 
Wolf, John G., M. D. 
Yonker, Francis. 
Ziegler, John. 
Ziegler, Leonhardt. 
Zintner, Fredk. 
Zoller, M.D. 

B. — Members in 1851. 

Ahrens, Adolph. 
Albers, H., M. D. 
Alberti, H. F. 
Arens, Henry. 
Ballauf, August. 
Benzinger, Matthias. 
Berg, Otto H. 
Benke, J. A., M. D. 



I«2 



History of The 



BlEDE, A. 
BOEHM, ChAS. G. 
BOENINGER, ChAS. 

BoENiNGER, Edward. 
BraunSj F. L. 
Bruhl, Justus. 
Brune, F. W., for life. 
Brune, F. W., Jr. 
Brune, John C. 
Brune, Wm. H. 
buch walter, a. 
Bulling, Chas. 
Bulling, F. 
Caspari, Chas. 
Caspari, Wm. 
Classen, Herm. 
Cohen, J. T., Jr. for 

life. 
Cohen, Israel. 
Cohen, Moses. 
Conrad, G. J. 
Crey, Fredk. 
Damman, F. W. 
Deerke, G. C. 
Degenhardt, Chas. 
Delins, Charles. 
DiERiNG, Ludwig. 
Dierking, H. 

DiTTUS, F. 

Dobler, Theopholus. 
Dresel, W. 
Drost, G. a. 
Durchhausen. 
Eisenbrandt, C. H. 
Eltermann, Fred. 
Engler, Adolph. 
Eschbach, John. 
Felgner, F. W. 



FiCKEY, A. 

Flamm, Peter. 
Frick, George, M. D. 
Frick, Wm. F. 
Friese, Ph. R. J., for 

life. 
Friese, Philip C. 
Gable, John. 
Gaehle, Henry. 
Gail, George W. 
Gerdes, H. G. 
Glocker, Theodor. 
Graf, Fred. B. 
Graue, H. H. 
Groeninger, Aug. 

GiJNTHER, H. 

Gude, Justus. 
Harjes, John H. 
Harman, Geo. 
Hen NIGS, E. A. 

HiNRICHS, ChR. 

Hogendorp, E. 

HOLSTE, p. C. 

Huenichen, G. 
Huntemuller, F. H. 
Huppmann, N. 
Jacobson, H. G. 
Katz, John. 
Keyser, Moses. 
Kirch NER, H. 
Kapff, Herm. Von 
Kapff, Fred. Von. 
Klaumburg, H. F. 
Kleyensteuben, F. H. 
Klingenberg, a. 
Knabe, Wm. 
Koechling, H. M. 
Koehler, Aug. 



Koenig, Fred., for life. 
Kremelberg, J. D. 
Kurtz, Ed. 
Lamping, Wm. 
Lange, John Geo. 
Lehr, Robert, 
Lemke, E. H. 
Lentz, Chas. W. 
Leupold, Chas. 
Lewis, Martin. 
Lindenmann, Conrad. 
Lingenfelder, F. H. 

LilRMAN, G. W. 

Mann, Ernst. 
Mayer, Fred. 
Mayer, Chas. F. 
Mallinkrodt, W. 
Marburg. Wm. 
Messersmith, J. K. 
Metz, August. 
Meyer, Burkhardt. 
Meyer, Ferdinand. 
Meyer, August. 
Middendorf, H. 
Mittendorff, C. 
Morawetz, L., M. D. 
Mueller, Julius. 
Mueller, H. 
Nolting, Chas. 
Numsen, Wm. 
Oelrichs, Henry. 
Ogston, a. W. 
Ohrenschall, Chas. 
Peters, John G. 
PoEPPLEiN, NiCH., for 

life. 
PoEPPLEiN, Geo. 
Pralle, Dietrich. 



German Society of Maryland 



183 



Pracht, August C. 
Precht, C. 
Preiss, Hirsch. 
Prior, O. F. 
Raine, Fred. 
Reinhardt, Chas. C. 
Rickers, Nicholas. 
Ripplemeyer, C. H. 
Sadtler, John. 
Sander, Geo. 
Schaer, Wm. 
schaeffer, c. a. 
ScHAUM, Fred. 
ScHEPPLER, Fred. 
Schmidt, Jas. A, 
Schmidt, Geo. 

SCHNIBBE, DiEDR. 



Schumacher, Albert. 
Seemueller, Aug. 
Siemers, H. 
SiKKEN, Charles. 
Simon, Charles. 
Simon, Charles, Jr. 
Simon, Herman. 
Simon, Max. 
Spilker, C. W. 
Spilker, G. H. 
Spilker, Charles. 
Spreckelsen, G. a. 

Von. 
Stehl, John. 
Stein HOEFER, C. 
Stellmann, John. 
Straus, Henry. 



Straus, Levy. 
Strobel, J. P. 
Strohmeyer, Geo. 
Strohm, J. F. 
Thuener, L. W. 
ToEL, Gust. 
Trust, Jacob. 
Turner, J. Maybury. 
Uhrlaub, Edw. 
Uhthoff, Fred. 
VocKE, Claas. 
Voceler, Chas. 
Waesche, G. F. K. 
Wegner, Aug., M. D. 
WiEGEL, Henry. 

WiLKINS, H. 

Wiss, E., M. D. 



J 84 



History of The 



MEMBERS FROM 1851 TO 1908. 



Deceased or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to 1908. 

Ax, Christian. 
Alleks, J. A. 
Albaugh, John. 
Albers, a. 

Active, 1908. 

Adams, Henry. 
Adt, John B. 
Ahrens, Julius. 
Altvater, Louis. 
Ancker, Walter. 
Apitz, Rev. Otto. 
Arlt, Rev. Hans. 
Assau, W. F. 
Atkinson, Wm. Geo. 
Auer, Philip T. 
Aull, Louis. 
Ax, Christian. 

Deceased or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to 1908. 

Beck, F. W. 
Brockelman, Theo. 
Brinke, H. Ad. 

BOLTE, S. 

Bolenius, H. 
Backmeister, W. 
Bichey, Herm. 
Boedecker, G. D. 



Bachman, J. C. H. 
Benzinger, F. 
Brehme, C. 
Brehme, O. H. 

BeLITZ, AUELlJiiRT. 

Becker, H. 
Bruns, John. 
Bauernschmidt, Geo. 
Boehm, Dr. a. 
Beim, Chas. 
Blimline, B. 
Bechtel, Geo. 
Bendheim, Adolph. 
Bendheim, Meyer, 
buschmann, c. h. 
Babs, Reinhold. 
Blum HART, C. 
Brinkmann, a. H. 
Born, Herman. 
Bauernschmidt, Jr., 

John. 
Becker, Chas. F. 
Becker, G. W. 
Becker, Louis. 
Bersch, Cakl. 
Brand, Wm. 
Bartell, L. E. 
Bartels, Philip. 
Bartels, Gustav a. 
Brafman, a. 
Baetjer, Henry. 
Beck, Louis. 
Benzinger, Harry M. 



Benner, Otto. 
BiNioN, Dr. a. 
Bock, Charles. 
Boss, Robt. D. 
iiuss, G. L. 
Blome, George J. 
Bode, G. H. 
Brown, Henry. 
Bolte, H. 
Block, Edw. 
Bubert, Dr. C. H. 
Butzler. Chas. 
Bauernschmdt, John. 
Bergman, M. 
Brehm, Geo. 
Brunier, Alb. F. 
Beeler, C. E. 
Blummer, Geo. 
Brink, Carl. 
Buchholtz, Wm. 
Becker, John A. 
Becker Bros. 
BuRKART, Rev. N. 
Born, John. 
BoRST, Theo. L. 
Brand, Wm. 
Brecht, Louis. 
Bauernschmidt, Jr., 

Mrs. John. 
Bergner, Wm. 
BoELKER, Max. 
Block, Meyer Hon. 
Baer, Hon. Thomas S. 



German Society of Maryland 



185 



Active, 1908. 

Badenhoop, Herman. 

Baetjer, Edwin G. 

Barclay, Capt. John 
T. 

Bauernschmdt, Fred. 

Bauernschmidt, John 

Bauernschmidt, Wm. 

Beck, Jacob. 

Becker, August F. 

Becker, Charles R. 

Beehler, Wm. H. 

Bennet, Geo. W . 

Bergner, Fredei.rk. 

Blanck, Conrad H. 

Bledsoe, Robt. L. 

Boehm, Herman. 

Boemcke, Hans. 

Borcherding. John D. 

Boehmer, Franz. 

Boring, J. Henry. 

Born, Hermann. 

Brack, Chas. E. 

Brehm, Henry A. 

Breves, Fritz. 

Bruenings, Edmund. 

Brugger, Albert. 

Brumshagex, J. Fred- 
erick. 

Buccheister, George. 

BuDNiTz, Emil. 

Bunnecke, George. 

Bunnecke, George H. 

Bunnecke, William 
G. 

Bury. Kitan. 



Buschmann, Victor 
H. 

Deceased or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to 1908. 

Cohen, David J. 
Cohen, Israel. 
Cook, Fred. 
Crase, Peter H. 
Crownfield, F. 
Cohen, Israel. 
Cohen, Moses. 
Cuesch, W. 
Curlander, B. 
Christian A. 
Cattus, J. 
Cramer, John. 
Caspari, Jr., Chas. 
Campsen, H. C. 

Active, 1908. 

Callow, Enoch P. 
Claus, E. C. 
Cook, John. 
Christ, Philip. 

Deceased or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to 1908. 

Danziger, Julius. 
Deitzen, Th. 
Duker, Otto. 
Driver, Max. 

DOBLER, GuSTAV A. 

Deutsch, Wm. 



DoLFiELD, Alex. Y. 
Doerr, Edward F. 
Deibel, G. G. 
Depkin. L. 
Depkin, H. 
Dresel, F. F. 
Dieter, Louis A. 
Dieck, H. W. 
Drey, Elkan. 
Denhardt, Mrs. E. 
DiSTLER, John C. 
DoBLER, Mrs. G. A. 

Active, 1908. 

Decker, Adolph F. 
Deetjen, Dr. Chr. 
Deichmann, Dr. Ed. 
Diener, Theo. H. 
Dierksen, Christ. 
Dietrich, Louis P. 
Dimling, Geo. 
Dobler, Hon. John J. 
Doetsch, Louis J. 
Dohme, Chas. E. 
Dohme, Louis. 
Dugan, Cumberl, Jr. 

Deceased or Resigned 
from 1851 to 1908. 

Eversmann, Fred. 
Ehlers, Ludwig. 
Elenbrock, Fr. 
Ehrmann, Lewis. 
Eigenbrot, H. 
Emmel, Conrad. 



i86 



History of The 



EULER, FkED. 
ElCHMAN, J. C. 
ElSENBRANDT, W. 

EuLER, Franz. 
Evans, Harry G. 

EUKER, Wm. 

Ellinger, Isaac. 

Active, 1908. 

EcK, August. 

Deceased or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to 1908. 

Flamm, Geo. 
Fritz, Chs. 
Farber, H. J. 
Friese, C. 
Fink, F. \V. 
Faust, Heinrich. 
Faust, John. 
FoRSTER, Geo. H. 
Friedenwald, Jos. 
Feuss, a. C. 
Felber, Simon. 
Friedrich, John. 
FucHS, Fritz. 
Farber, Martin, 
Fucks, Prof. Otto 
Fischer, L. C. 
Foss, John N. 
Fischer, Harry. 
Fischer, Charles. 
Farber, Edwin J. 
Faust, Chas. H. 
Fauth, Henry. 



Flynn, James. 
Frentz, Henry. 
Frentz, Henry A. 
Freybe, Ferd. 
Friese, Chas. 
Falte, Franz. 
Florenz, Fredk. 



gunther, c. w. 
Gunther, L. W. 
GoMBEL, Wm., M. D. 
Gengnagel, Sr., J. 
Gengnagel, Jr., J. 
Glaeser, Chas. 
Geiger, Joseph. 



Fritsch, Rev. Karl F. Guider, J. Chas. 

Gminder, Jacob. 

Active, 1908. 



Fankhanel, a. L. 
Faust, Mrs. Chris- 
tine. 
Feick, Charles. 



Gutman, Joel. 
Grimm, Henry. 
Garthe Aug. 
Gustavus, Peter. 
Graue, Edw. 
Gossweile a. v., ill D. 



Feldner, Frederick W. Gundersdorff, C. L. 
Field, Charles W. Gottschalk, A. 



Greibel, Fredk. A. 
Genso, F. G. 
Getz, John. 
GoDEY, Harry. 



Filbert, Isaac S. 

FiSKE, Dr. John D. 

Florenz, F. W. 

Flynn & Em eric h Co, 

Fortenbaugh, Charles Giesin, Aug. 

Franke, George. Goetzke, John H 

Friedenwald, Joseph. 

Furst, Frank A. Active, 1908. 



Deceased or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to 1908. 

Gl.\ttus, Peter. 
Graf, Fredk. C. 
Grass, John J. 
Guildener, Chas. 
Graff, Fred. 
German, W. 
Giffhorn, W. 
Grooscoovs, H. 



Gail, Geo. W. Jr. 
Gans, Edgar H. 
Ganter, F. X. 
Gehrmann, Charles. 
Gensler, John. 
Geyer, Edward C. 
Gieske, Mrs. Gustav. 
Glaser, C. 

Gottlieb, Frederick H. 
Gottschalk, Joseph. 
Grecht, William. 



German Society of Maryland 



187 



GiiNTHER, George. 
GuTMAN, Mrs. Joel. 

Deceased or Resigned 
from 185 1 to 1908. 

HOLTHAUS, F. T. 
HiNTERNESCH, M. D. 

Hegen, F. Th. 
HoRwiTz, F. B., M. D. 

HOFFBAUER, J. H. 
HiRSCHFIELD, E. D. 

Hausenvvald, J. H. 
Hassencamp, Ferd. 
Hunkel, Philip. 
HetTj J. 
Hasenbalg, H. 
Horn, Theo. 
Hunckel, Otto. 
Henigen, a. 
Hilbert, F. H. 
Huntemiller, W. 
Heldmann, J. A., M. 

D. 
holtzmann, w. 
Hayen, E. 
Henricks, Chas. 
Henricks, Christ. 
Heise, Wm. 
Heubach, Edw. 
HoEN Ernst. 
Hoffmann, Chas., M. 

D. 
HoEN, Albert. 
Hecht, Jacob. 
Hellwig, Jr., Aug. 



Hausenwald, Edw. 
Heiser, Chas. 

HiRSCHBERG, M. H. 

Hoener, Albert S. 
Helldorfer, Seb. 
Herzberg, Phil. 
Hausch, Geo. 
Hinrichs, Theo. 
Huber, Rev. Edw. 
Hessemer, Chas. 
Holthaus, H. C. 
Honig, Max. 
Hax, Peter. 
Hoen, Henry. 
Hecht, Edw. E. 
Hamburger, H. 
Hasenbalg, Ernst. 
Harman, S. J. 
Hoelljes, Capt. D. 
Henkleman, F., Jr. 
Herrmann, John M. 
Herman, John P. 
Hubner, John. 
Heldrich, Phil, M. D. 
Haupt, Jacob. 
Heise, Mrs. Wm. 
Helldorfer, S. & Sons 
homrighausen, g. 
Hogendorf, C. 
Hellman, F. F. 
Hoffman, J. Leonard. 
Hanselmann, Louis. 
Hofmeister, Paul. 
Hartz, C. Von. 
H. H. Hobelmann. 



Active, 1908. 

Hack, Frederick H. 
Hafer, George J. 
Haman, B. Howard. 
Hannibal, John. 
Harig, August H. 
Hassenkamp, Adolph. 
Hassfurther, August 
Hauck, G. F. M. 
Hax, George A. 
Hecht, A. H. 
Heinemann, Fred'k. 
Hennighausen, Rev. 

F. P. 
Hennighausen, L. 

Kemp. 
Hennighausen, L. P. 
Hennighausen, P. C. 
Herzog, Charles. 
Hester, G. Louis. 
Heuisler, Hon. Chas. 

W. 
Hilgartner, Andrew. 
Hilg.\rtner, Charles 

L. 
Hilgenberg, Carl C. 
Hoilken, H. G. 
HiLKEN, Paul G. L. 
Hinrichs, John. 
His KEY, Thos. Foley. 
HiTE, Drayton M. 
Hobelman, Dr. Fred. 

W. 

IIOCHSCHILD, KoHN & 

Co, 



i88 



History of The 



Hoffman, Fred. Wm. 

Hoffmann, Dr. Rob- 
ert. 

Hoffmann, Rev. Jul- 
ius. 

Homer, Chas. C. 

Homer, Chas. C, Jr. 

Hoos, John. 

Hornick, John L. 

Houff, Gustav. 

HuLSHOFF, John G. 

Deccnscd or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to 1908. 

Ingden. Peter. 
Interrieden, Joseph. 
Ingram, James E. 
Imwold & Mehring. 
Illmer, Louis. 

Deceased or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to igo8. 

Jordan, Edward. 
Joesting, H. 
Joesting, Aug. 
Janowitz, S. & Son. 

Active, 1908. 

Johansen, Paul. 
Junker, Frank. 



Deceased or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to 1908. 

Keutgen, C. H. 
Koch, H. 
Koppelman, J. G. 
koppelman, j. 
Keidel, M. D. 
Keidel, L. 
Kochling, Wm. 
Keidel, H. H. 
Knabe, Ernst. 
Kremelberg, J. 
Kretzer, C. 
Koch, Wm. 
Kevser, L. p. 
Klemm, Chas. H. 
Kochlert, Henry. 
Knatz, Phil. 
Kappler, John. 
Kamp, Albert S. 
Kraus, Jacob. 
Kerkhoff, a. H. 

KlEFER, M. 

Knipp, Geo. 
Kemper, M. 
Koch, F. W. 
Koether, Wm. 
Klemper, Herm. a. 
Kloch, Wm. 
Kuper, John. 
Kam merer, p. Aug. 
King, W. G. H. 



Klug, Wm. J. 

KUMLEHN, H. C. W. 

King, Julius C. 
Kriel, John T. 
Knobloch, E. Von. 
KuLL, Joseph Von, 

M. D. 
Kleim, Albert D. of J. 
Kleibecker, Bernd. 

Active, 1908. 

Kaiser, August F. 

Kaiser, Charles. 

Kaiser, Ferdinand. 

Keidel, Charles. 

Keidel, Henry. 

Kiefer, Matthias. 

KiNEMUND, Frederick 
C. 

Klein, Daniel A. 

Klein, Jacob. 

Klier, Frederick C. 

Klipper, F. W. 

Knabe, Ernest J., Jr. 

Knabe, William. 

Knefely, Henry. 

Knollenberg, Her- 
man. 

Knoop, George C. 

Knoop, John F. 

Knoop, Louis. 

Koehlert, Hermann. 



German Society of Maryland 



189 



KooKE, Gerhard F. 
KoppELMAN, Charles 

H. 
KrafTj Charles. 
Kranz, G. Fred. 
Krekel, Hubert. 
Krug, John G. 
Krug, Theodore F. 
KiiHLE, Emil. 
Kummer, Arnold. 
KuRTS, John B. 

Deceased or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to 1908. 

logemann, h. 
Landes, E. 
Lehman, E. D. G. 
LuRMAN, John. 
Lurman, G. W. 
Langfeld, H. 

LUYTER, H. 

Lemke, M. 
Lange, H. 
Langhild, G. F. 
Lipps, Christopher. 
L'Allemand, Chas. 
Laubheimer, W. 
Leist, Fred. 
Leyh, E. F. 
LiEBiG, G., M. D. 
Lehmann, Chas. C. 
Littig, John M. 
LoRZ, John. 
Letzer, Joseph. 
Ludwig, Theo. 
I.iEDLicn, Geo. 

LoH MEYER, Wm. H. 



Logerman, Henry C. 
Leonhardt, Wm. 
Lahusen, F. W. 
Lowenstein, L. 
Lang, Leonh. 
Loeber, John, 
lowenthal, isidor. 
Lutz, W;m. 
LiNDAUER, Christian. 
LuERSEN, Chas. C. & 

Son. 
Lehman, Julius. 
Lanahan, Wm. 
Loeser, Aug. 

Active, igo8. 

Lang, Adam. 
Latrobe, Hon. Ferd. 

C. 
Lauber, John P. 
Laubheimer, William 
Lehr, Robert, Jr. 
Leimbach, Gebhard. 
Lentz, Frederick. 
Lerian, Jacob. 
Leser, Hon. Oscar. 
Lieberknecht, Chas. 
Lipps, Frederick W. 
LocHER, Rev. C. W. 
LiJDERiTZ Carl A. 

Deceased or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to 1908. 

Meyer, B. 
Meineck, C. 
MiiLLER, Aug. 



Myer, G. a. 
Mayer, Chris. L. 
Meyer, D. H. 
MoTZ, Ferdinand. 
Maylander, H. 
Messersmith, Jacob. 
Messerschmidt, Chas. 
Mayer, G. H. 
Mayer, C. F. of Louis. 
Moritz, J. D. 
Marburg, Chas. L. 
Mathieu, C. F., M. D. 
Meyer, Chas F. 
Munder, Theo. 
MuTH, John. 
Mark, Jhon. 
MiLSKE, Chas. 
Maier, J. G. 
morman, w. h. 
Mengel, John G. 
Muth, M. Jos. 
Matthai, John C. 
MiiLLER, Andrew. 
Matthes, Jacob H. 
Mann, Harry E. 
Merz, Henry. 
Mergenthaler, O. 
Mehler, Mrs. Helene. 
Maiberg, John. 
Mayer, Chas. F. 
Mallebre, Henry. 

Active, 1908. 

Maag, August. 
Malchow, Otto. 
Marburg, Albert. 
Marburg, Theodore. 



190 



History of The 



Marburg, William A. 
Mattheisz, John H. 
Mayer, Frederick J. 
Meislahn, Chas. F. 
Meissel, William. 
Mentzel, Albert W. 
Meyer, Adolph C. 
Meyer, Dr. Chas. H. 

A. 
Meyer, Ferdinand. 
Meyer, John D. 
Meyerdirck, Martin. 
MiCKLicH, Herm. 

MiDDENDORF, J. Wm. 

Miller, George. 
Mueller, Frederick. 
Mueller, Louis. 
MiiLLER, Louis. 

MUNTER, BeRNHARD. 

Myer, Dr. Bern hard. 

Deceased or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to 1908. 

NoELLE, Charles. 
Niemann, E. 
numsen, g. w. 
Nolting, C. 

NiCOLAI, H. 

Nickel, G. C. 
Nelker, Adam H. 
Nelker, John F. 
Neurath, John. 
Neuhaus, Chas. 
Neudecker, L. H. 



Active, 1908. 

Niederhoefer, John. 
Nitze, Charles. 
Nitzel, Henry M. 

Deceased or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to igo8. 

Osterton, W. 

OCHS, W. 

O elm AN, Fred. 
Oehm, Chas. H. 
Orr, W. L. 
Ortwine, Wm. 

Active, 1908. 

Obst, Adam. 
Oehm, F. W. 
Ohlmeyer, Aug. J. 
Ohrenschall, F. a. 
Ortmuller, John. 

Deceased or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to 1908. 

Pracht, Chas. 
Pietsch, O. 
Prior, Ed. A. 
Prior, Gustav. 
Plack, Jacob. 
Pagels, G. H. 
Petzold, Louis. 
Petzold, R. T. 



Poepplein, Geo. Jr. 
Polinger, Fred. R. 
Pfeil, Aug. 
Plitt, Geo. 
Pels, Moses. 
Pistel, Geo. H. 
Pausch, Mrs. Louisa. 
Peuss, Chas. 
Prior, Louis. 
Pemsel, George. 

Active, 1908. 

Packham, William 

A. T. 
Pirscher, William F. 
Platt, Herman S. 
Prechtel, George F. 

Active, 1908. 

QuiTT, Max H. 

Deceased or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to 1908. 

Reitz, H. L. 
Reichl, C. 
Rosewig, William. 

ROGGE, C. 

Rudolph, Jacob. 

Ruhl, C. 

Raddatz, Prof. Chas. 

F. 
Roehle, L. C. 



German Society of Maryland 



191 



ROTHERj L. C. 

Rudolph, Cuxo H. 

RoMERj HeINRICU. 

RoEDER, August. 
RiEHL, Capt. Chas. 

ROSENFELD, S. & Co. 

Reimers, H. 

RiCKERT, Wm.. M. D. 

Reuter, Chas. 
Raiber, Joseph. 
Raleigh, V,'. A. 
Radecke, J. D. 
Rennert, Robt. 
Requardt, J. Fred. 
Rausch, Geo. 
Rayman, Paul O. 
Reitz, Lewis H. 
Rahe, Chas. M. 
Reier, Henry. 
Russegger, Bernh. 
Roehm, Herman. 
Reiche, Robt. J. 

RiNGSDORF & HaUFF. 

Active, 1908. 

Rabbe, Conrad C. 

Radecke Bros. 

Raine, Edward. 

Ranft, Louis P. 

Rauschenberg, Her- 
man. 

Rein HARD, Dr. Ferdi- 
nand. 

Remmers, Henry G. 

Requard, John M. 

Reuling, Dr. Geo. 



Riebesehl, Henry. 
Rippel, Henry S. 
Rolker, John G. 
Roschen, Herm. D. 
RoTHER, Robert M. 
RiiiiL, Conrad & Son. 
RuHSTRAT, Henry. 
RuHSTRAT, Carl. 

Deceased or Resigned 
from 185 1 to 1908. 

Simon, M. 
Simon, A. 
Schwartz, B. 
Schwartz, L. Von. 
Schwartz, J. 
Schwartz, Henry. 
Stalfort, Fred. 
Semke. 

Schuermann, H. 
SoHNS, Chas. 
Sattler, Wm. 
Sauerberg, J. D. 

SCHUTT, ChR. 

Samman, D. 
Stoltze, H. E. 
Siebert, Ed. 

SCHULTZ, A. H. 

Schultze, H. F. 
schuerman, a. 
Seeger, Jacob. 

SCHAER, W. 

Schneider, Martin. 
Seemuller, J. R. 
SuTRO, Emil. 
SuTRO, Otto. 



Stromberg, H. 
Schlens, Adolph. 
Schlens, F. 
Schneider, Geo. 
Spilker, Chas. Jr. 
Stauff, Frederick. 
Steffens,Capt. Henry 
Salzer, H., M. D. 
Sommerfeld, John. 
Schiller, Wm. C. 
Schnauffer, Wm. 

SCHAUR, C. 

Stallmann, Wm. 
Sander, H. 
Scheu, Wm. 
Siebert, Christ. 
Schulz, H. a. 
Schulze, Ferdinand. 
Schultze, Hugo T. 
Schulz, C. F. E. 
Schulze, Wm. Theo. 
Schultz, Walter. 
Schultze, Wm. 
Schrader, Aug. 
Stoffregen, Karl. 
Schneidereith, C. W. 
Sam STAG, H. 
Strauss, L. 
Strauss, Sol. 
Strauss, Jos. H. 
Stahlfort, D. 
Streichenberg, Albert 
A. 

SCHERER, Wm. 

Sattler, Edw. 
Sattler & Co. 
Staeblein, Theo. 



192 



History of The 



Savage, Geo. 
Stellman, John. 
Seemuller, William. 
Schneider, Louis. 
Stein, Samuel. 
Stine, Joseph, 
schneydter, g. 
Schmidt, Christ. 
Schmidt, Heinrich. 
Steinmetz, Wm., M. 

D. 
Slingluff, Frank, M. 

D. 
Siemers, H. F. 
Stieff, Chas. M. 
Slingluff, Chas. B. 
Schmidt, H. D. 
Schmidt, Peter. 
Smith, B. F. 

SCHMIDTBORN. EmIL. 

Schott, S. p. 
Schroeder, Henry A. 
Strukman, Harry, 
schaefer, h. 
Scheller, Ernst. 
ScHLEGEL, Henry. 
Siegel, John M. 
Simon, Charles, Jr. 
Smyser, James A. 
Schad, Fred. 
Spanhake, H. 
Schnepfe, John H. 
Stiebritz, Gottlieb. 
Stenken, Danl. Capt. 
Stuede, Wm. 
Schapiro, Max, M. D. 



Sommerwerck, Dan- 
iel. 

Schroeder, Mrs. Her- 
mine. 

Stephan, Siegmund. 

Stahlfort, John C. 

SucRO, Geo. C. 

Scheidt, Fredk. 

Schuler, Martin. 

Schleifer, Jos. E. 

Sternberg, Kurt Ru- 
dolph. 

Seidewitz, Edw. a. 

Starve, Richard, Rev. 

Sebald, J. F., M. D. 

Shymer, H. Cariiart. 

Active, 1908. 

Salzer, Ernest T. 
Sander, Ernst. 
Sander, George A. 
Sangmeister, Ru- 
dolph. 
Sattler, G. William. 
Sauter, WiLLIAlV:. 
Schaub, Francis J. 
ScHAUB, Otto. 
Schirm,Hon. Chas. R. 

SCHLENS, GUSTAV A. 

Schleunes, Francis 
ScHLEUNES, Henry. 
Schmalz, Louis N. 
ScHMEissER, Ernst. 
Schmidt, Charles R. 
Schneider, Charles. 



Schneider, Frederick 

F. 
Schneidereith, Louis 

C. 
Schneidereith, Miis. 

Maria M. 
Scholtz, KIarl A. I\r. 
Schumacher & Fore- 
man. 
Schumann, Paul. 
Seeger, Paul A. 
Seeman, Frederick C. 
Sellman, James L. 
Shryock, Thomas J. 
Siegael, Samuel. 
Siegmund, Gustav. 
Simon, Dr. William. 
Snyder, Henry. 
Sommerwerck, Ru-.. 

dolph. 
Spamer, C. Augustus 

E. 
Spieker, Dr. Edward. 

H. 
Spilman, Charles. 
Stein, Ch.\rles F. 
Steiner, Hugo. 
Sterger, Rev. A. 

Friedrich. 
Stieff, Frederick P. 
Stisser, G. W. 
Straus, Jos. H. 
Straus, W. L. 
Strohmer, John. 
Strott, John C. 
Sturm, W. A. 



German Society of Maryland 



193 



Deceased or Resigned 
from 185 1 to 1908. 

ToEL, Chas. 
Treusch, a. 
TestorFj James H. 
Testorff, F. 
Thomas, J. H. 
Thomas, H. 
Thies, J. 
Thies, John H. 
Tieck, Heinrich C. 
Thau, Franz. 
ToRSCH, Fred. A. 
Torsch, E. L. 
Textor, Anton. 

TOLLE, H. 

Turner, J. J. 
Turner, L. J. 
ToMZ, C. B. 

Active, 1908. 

Thomas, Henry. 
Thomas, John Henry, 
Thurn, Herbert J. 
TjARKS, John. 
Trappe, Aug. F. 

Deceased or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to 1908. 

Uhrlaub, Herman. 
Uhrig, John. 
Ulrich, F. W. 
Ullrich, John. 
Unverzagt, Geo. B. 
Umbach, Geo. W. 



Wolff, Alex. 
Widdekind, Henry. 
Wehrhane, H. 
W^rth, Charles. 

WiLKENS, W. W. 
WiLKENS, H. 
WiLKENS, J. C. 

Deceased or Resigned Wilkens, Wm. 
from 1851 to 1908. Wentz, J. B. 



Ulman, a. J. 
UzuBER, John. 

Active, 1908. 

UhLIG, J. KONRAD. 



Volkman, G. 
voneiff, j. 

VOGEL, J. R. 

VoGEL, Phil R. 
VoGLER, Jerome. 
Vorhauer, Wm. 
Vees, Henry. 
VoLZ, John. 
Von Kapff, H. 
Von Collen, J. C. 
Vonderhorst, H. R. 
Vonderhorst, H. 

Herm. 
Von Lingen, Geo. A. 

Active, 1908. 

VocKE, Henry B. 
Von Hartz, Carl. 
Von Heine, Henry G 
Von Marees, Hans. 



Wegelein, a. 
Weber, Justus. 
Wegner, J. H. 
Wegner, a., M. D. 
Wehrkamp, L. 
Werneburg. 
Wehrhane, Karl. 
Wanneweisch, Chas, 
Wehr, Frepk. 

Wenck, E. E. 

Winkleman, J. H. 

WiESSNER, John F. 

Wiener, Morris, M. 
D. 

Wilms, Chas. 

Weil, Albert. 

WiLLE, Chas. 

Weyforth, B. 

Wagner, B. L. 

Wattenscheidt, 

EWALT. 



Walpert, F. 

Weideman, T. 
Deceased or Resigned Wenzing, O. 
from 1851 to 1908. WcESSEL, Henry. 

Weise, Edw. H, 
Weil, Geo. Weaver, Wm. H. 

Wagner, Phil. Wendler, John. 

Wagner, Caspar. Weilbacher, Paul. 



194 



The German Society of Maryland 



WiENCKE, A. G. 
WiESEL, John M. 
Wackerhausen, Wm. 

G. 
Wachter, Frank C. 
Whalen, Frank. 
Wiegand, Chas. 
Weigand, Phil. 
Warner, C. Hopewell 
Wehrenberg, F. 

WiLHELM. L. R. 

Wiener, Chas. J. 
WiTTE, F. 

Active, 1908. 

WaHMANN, John H. 
Wagner, George L. 



Wattenscheidt, 

Christ. R. 
Wattenscheidt, R. 
Weber, August. 
Weber, Charles, Jr. 
Weeer, F. H. 
Wegner, Julius. 
Wehe, Alfred. 
Wehr, August. 
Wehr, Harry. 
Wehr, Mrs. Johanna. 
Weikel, William. 
Weil, Louis. 
Weisskittel, Anton, 

Jr. 
Wenzing, Herman. 
Weyforth, Philip. 
Weyler, John F. 



WiEMAN, Leopold H. 
WiEssNER, George F. 
Wiessner, Henry F. 

WiLKENS, ReINHARD. 

Windfelder, George. 
Wischmeyer, Edward. 
WiTTMER, Michael. 
Wolf, Henry J. 
Wolff, Oscar. 

Deceased or Resigned 
from 1 85 1 to 1908. 

Zuckerschwerdt, H. 
Zeul, Conr.\d. 
Zeul, John. 

D. ZlVERMANN, ThEO. 

Zeller, Emil H. 
ZiES, Charles. 



INDEX. 



Act of Incorporation 72 

Acts, Relative to German Redemptioners 74 

Agents, Shipping Redemptioners 17 

Agent, of Society 121 

Agent, Report of 166 

Ahl, Dr. John Peter 42 

Alrichs, Herman 48, 54 

Amelung, John F. L 40, 60, 61, 7;^ 

Amehmg, F. L. E 46, 61, 72> 

Amigh, Peter 48 

Amich, Col. Henry 55 

Astor, John Jacob 45 

Ax, Christian 119, 132, 133, 135 

Bader, Capt. Dominik 55 

Baer, Capt. Jacob 55, 61 

Baer, Dr. Jacob 61 

Baltimore Town, 1750 2i7 

Battle of North Point 55 

Brantz, Louis 46, 60, 61, 72, 

Banquet, The First 70 

Banquets 161 

Banquet, i2Sth Anniversary 163 

Bleeker, Capt, Proceedings Against 64 

Brauns, F, L 93, 99, 102 

Benzinger, Col. Mathies 100, 108, 120 

Beltzhoover's Hotel 91 

Brehm, Geo 157 

Bixler, David 48 

Broenings Boys, Case of 66, 80 

Bodenw^erber Johann, Case of 77 

Boehm, Charles C 99, 102, 115 

Brown, Hon. Geo. Wm in 



196 Index 

Butler vs. Boardman, Case of 14 

Brune, F. W 46, 60, 93, 104, 106, 115 

Brune, F. W. Jr 100, 122 

Brune, Col. F. W 132, 133, 146, I54. 156 

Busshman, Victor 133 

Books, German, Published 47 

Calvert, Cecilius, Gov., Letter of 16, 17 

Charity Organization Society 148 

Contract, Shipping Redemptioners 19 

Cole, Geo 45 

Cronmiller, Philip 54 

Cohen, Benj. J 60, 98, 106, 108 

Cohen, J. J 60, 93, 108 

Cohen, Israel 98, 99, 115, 116, 117, 119 

Commutation Money Paid by Immigrants 94. 96, 97 

Committee on Membership 87 

Convicts loi, 108 

Conrad, Julius 133 

Cruse, Peter Hoffman 84, 90 

Churches, German 47 

Cumberland, Agent at 109 

Davis, Solomon, Letter to dy 

Decker, Geo 49, 50, 54 

Diffenderfer, Dr. Michael 48, 50, 51. 60 

Diffenderfer, Peter 49, 50, 51 

Diffenderfer, Daniel SO, 54 

Diffenderfer, Chas 93 

Dobler, John 48 

Dohme, Louis 134 

Donations and Bequests 168 

Dutch Shipping Contracts of Red 17 

Dukehart, Heinrich 48 

Eden, Gov., Letter to Lord Dartmouth 36 

Eichelberger, Jesse 60, 61 

Eckel, Philip P 73 

Eiseln, Fried 48 



Index 197 

Emich, Nic, 48 

Etting, Samuel 46, 54, 60, 99, 102, 104 

Executive Committee 159 

Famine, of 1816-1818 56 

Fauth, Ernst 48 

French Benevolent Society 148 

Frick, Peter 48, 49 

Frick, John 60 

Frick, John F 60, 61 

Frick, William 60, 61, 72,, 82, 86, 89 

Frick, Wm. F 109, 132 

Friese, John H 46 

Friese, John F 60, 61 

Friedenwald, Jos I34 

Fonerden, Adam 48, 49. 54 

Fusselbach, Johann 48 

Fuchs, Prof. Otto I57 

Frey, Samuel 49 

Gail, Geo. W 152, I57 

German Churches, First 27^ 50 

German Newspapers in 1796 41 

German Military in 1776--1812 45, 54 

Gcrmania Club 106, 107 

German Hospital 109 

Gerock, Samuel 45 

Gold, Peter 48, 54 

German Books Published in Baltimore I795 to 1802 47 

German Printing, First in Baltimore 38 

Hager, Jonathan 36 

Hasselbach, Nicholas 38 

Haubert, Capt 48, 55 

Hammer, Aug 73 

Hassencamp, Ferd ii5. HQ. ^33 

Hennighausen, L. P 124, I33, 134, 138, 146, 163 

Hering, Louis 48, 49. 54 

Heinze, Dr. F. E. B 93, 100 



I 98 Index 

Hilken, H. G 132, I34 

Heinrichs, John 134, 1S9 

Hilgenberg, Chas I34 

Hibernian Society 141. 148, 162 

Hoffman, Peter 48, 49 

Hoffman, David 48, 60, 61, y^, 82, 90 

Hoffman, Jacob SO, 5-2 

Hoffman, Johann 60 

Hoppe, Justus 48, 60, 92 

Hoogewerff, J. J 93 

Hospital, German 1 19 

Hospital, Md. Gen I53 

Huber, Rev. Edward 157 

Incorporation of Society 72 

Immigrants' Commutation Money 94, 95, 96, 97 

Interpreter, German at Courts io6 

Intelligence Bureau no 

Juforow Johanna, Ship 57. 64, 65 

Jacobsen, Henry G 87 

Kaminsky's Hotel 70 

Kalteisen, Capt. Michael 31 

Karthaus, Peter A 48 

Karthaus, Chas. W 60, 92 

Keerl, Dr. Henry 42, 46, 48 

Keeport, (Kuhbord) Joe P 45.49 

Keeport, Capt. Jacob 48 

Keilholtz, Wm 48 

Krebs, Wm 48, 60, 72, 

Keller, Christian 48, 54 

Keener, Melchoir 51 

Knefely, Henry I34 

Keerl, Samuel 60, 76, 93 

Knott, Jacob Adolph 48 

Kimmel, Michael 46, 60, 73 

Kurtz, Ed 93 



Index 199 

Labadists 56 

Laws of Maryland, Printed in German 39 

Laws Relative to German Redemptioners 74 

Laws Relative to Commutation Money 94, 96 

Lauts, Henry 134, 158 

Ladies' Bazaar 153 

Letters of Christ Mayer 67, 69, 82, 83, 86 

Lentz, Clias. W no, 118, 122 

Leypold, Fred 46, 54, ^2> 

Lindenberger, John 45 

Littig, Philip 48 

List of Members at 1783 and 1817 171 

List of Officers 174 

List of Counselors 175 

List of Physicians 175 

List of Managers 176 

List of Members, 1817-1908 178-194 

Louisiana, Laws of 28 

Lohr, John 45 

Lorman, Wm 46, 49, 54 

Lurman, G. W 115, 

Maryland Laws, as to Redemptioners 8 

Maryland Laws, Intermarriage with Negro Slaves 11, 13 

Maryland Laws, Punishment of Redemptioners 15 

Maryland Laws, Printed in General 3cv 

Maryland Staats Register 41* 

Maryland General Hospital 153 

Mackenheimer, Peter 45 

Mackenheimer, Col. John 45, 48, 55 

Mayer, Chas. F 60, 94, 107 

Mayer, Lewis 60 

Mayer, Christian 45. 60, 65, 72, 82, 83, 86, 89 

Mayer, Brantz 45, 106 

Mayher's, Otto Case 129, 130, 131 

Medtart, Gen. J 106 

Meyer, A. C i35, 138, I39. I59 

Meyers, Christian 45 



200 Index 

Meyer, Fred 50 

Meyer, Jacob 5° 

Miller, John 45 

Miller, Jacob 55 

Middendorf, Wm 134 

Michael, Wendel 48 

Mueller, Sallie The White Slave 21 

Mueller, Daniel 23, 24 

Numsen, Wm no, 118, 119 

Nitze, C 115 

Nieman, Eberhard 122, 132, 134, 137 157 

Otterbein, Rev. Phil. Wni 27, 50 

Ober, Jacob no, 114 

Orphan Asylum, Gen. Ger 118 

Oyster Dredgers 124, 125, 12; ' 

Oyster Dredgers, Maryland Laws 133, 134 

Oyster Dredgers, United States Laws 149, 150 

Patriots 6 

Pennsylvania, German Society of 29 

Peters, Capt. Michael 55 

Paupers 104 

Prima, The Emigrant Ship 78. 79. 85 

Pomp, Rev. M 50 

Redemptioners, of all Nationalities 5 

Redemptioners, Definition of 7, 8 

Redemptioners, Laws and Customs of Maryland S 

Redemptioners, Price of, in 1672 9 

Redemptioners, Intermarriage with Negro Slaves 11 

Redemptioners, Runaways 15 

Redemptioners, German 16 

Redemptioners, Shipping Contracts 17 

Redemptioners, Died on Ocean Voyage 20, 22 

Raborg, Wm 48, 49 

Rainc, Fred 1 10, n8, 137 



Index 201 

Reil, Conrad 48 

Reformed, First German Church 51 

Register of German Emigrants 76 

ReuHng, Dr. Geo HQ 

Redemptioners in Baltimore S8 

Redemptioners For Sale in Baltimore 59, 60 

Ridgely, Chas. Jr., Letter to 68 

Rother, Robt. M I35, 138, I39, 156, 159 

Rose, John C 150, 151 

Rudolph, Jacob I35 

Sale of Redemptioners 62 

Staats Register of Maryland 41. 4^ 

Sauer, Samuel, Printer 47 

Sauerwein, Peter 48, 60, 61 

Small, Jacob 48, 49, 61 

Sadtler, Capt. Ph. B 55, 60 

Schwerdfeger, Rev. Sam 9 

Schroeder, Heinrich 46, 54, 60, 61 

Schryock, Michael 48 

Schley, Jacob 48 

Schroeder, Wm 48 

Schwatka, Aug 48 

Schirm, Capt. John 48, 49, 58 

Schwartzman, Capt. Daniel 48 

Schaeffer, Babzar 49, 55 

Schaefifer, Fred 49, 54 

Schwarzauer, Capt. Dan 55 

Schulz, Conrad 60, 61, -76, 88 

Schwartz, Dr. A. J 60, 61, 88 

Schwartzkopf, Jos 88 

St. Andrews Society I44, 148, 162 

Sailer. Margaret, Case of m 

Schnebly, Dr 70 

Sharp, Gov. Report of Baltimore, 1754 ^il 

Steever (Stoever), Capt. Geo 48, 55 

Stauffer, Henry 49, 54 

Steiger, Andrew 5 1 



202 Index 

Strieker, Gen. John 48, 55, 60, 61 go 

Starke, Chas 92 

Stoffels Case 82 

Stroble, John P 93, 99, 100, 102 

St. George Society 141, 148, 162 

Steffens, Capt. Henry 157 

Steenken, Capt. Daniel 157 

Schepeler, Fred 112, 155 

South Carolina German Society 30 

Spilker, Chas. W 100, 102 

Seemuller, John R 122 

Schmeisser, Ernst 134, 135, 136, 156 

Schumacher, Albert 93, 98, 106, 119 

Snyder, John 49 

Tegtmeyer, Aug 48 

Tegtmeyer, Ludwig 48 

Thomson, Lorenz 48, 61, yjx 76, 86 

Trust, Jacob 118, 119 

Tieck, Heinrich C 134, 139, 142, 143, 146, 154 

Treasurer, Report of 165 

Uhler, Erasmus 48 

Von Kapff. J. B. Ansbach 46 

Von Kapflf, B. J 60 

Vocke, Claas 106, 119, 120, 124, 132, 157 

Von Kapfif, Herman 115-119 

Von Lingen, Geo. A 1 34 

Warner, Geo 48-49 

Warner, Michael 48 

Warner, Capt. Thomas 55 

Warner, Wm 49 

War of 1812-14 54 

Waesche, Fred 60-61 

Wiesenthal, Dr. Carl Fred 40, 41, 44 



Index 203 

Wiesenthal, Dr. Andrew 41, 42 

Wegner, Dr. Aug 106 

Weber, Jr., Chas 135, 137, 138, 139, 158 

Winter Heinrich 48 

Weishampel, Christian 48 

Wintclos' Hotel 88 

Williamson's Hotel 88 

Wilkens, H 115, 118 

Wellinghof, H. F 114 122, 123 

Woerschler, Moritz (Teacher) y] 

Woelper, Geo 49, 54 

Wolff, Dr. John Geo 61-63 

Wolff, Alex 118 

Wolff, Oscar 134, 154 

Zion Church, German Lutheran ^H-, 40j 52 

Zollikoffer, Dr, Wilhelm 42 

Zollikoffer, John Conrad 43 



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